The Hindu Business Line : China willing to cooperate with India

Sapporo, July 8 On a day when the Left parties announced the withdrawal of support to the Government over the nuclear deal, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday heard the Chinese President, Mr Hu Jintao, express his country’s willingness to cooperate with India in developing civil nuclear energy.

Briefing the Indian media about the bilateral talks here on the margins of the G-8 summit, the Indian Foreign Secretary, Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, noted that Dr Singh mentioned about the civil nuclear cooperation deal which had been discussed earlier with Mr Hu. Mr Menon said that as the Prime Minister mentioned on Monday at his news conference en route to Japan, “we do not anticipate there will be any difficulty about it.”

China is an important member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group whose approval is needed for India to secure international cooperation for its nuclear power programme.

However, a report on the meeting put out by China’s official news agency, Xinhua, did not specifically mention “nuclear energy” having been discussed, but quoted Mr Hu as saying, “China is willing to work with the Indian side to promote cooperation and exchanges in various fields, continuously substantialise the China-India strategic partnership, and advance the stable, sound and long-term development of bilateral relations.”

Mr Menon said that the two leaders spoke about the very rapid development of the economic relationship, the two-way trade in the first five months of this year having exceeded $24 billion, a 74 per cent increase over the same period the previous year.

“All in all it was a positive and constructive meeting that covered the full gamut of bilateral relations,” he said.

The Chinese President began the meeting by mentioning about the blast in Kabul, expressing China’s strong views on terrorism and offered his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.