Date:10/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/10/stories/2006091002371200.htm

National

India, China can't contain each other: Pranab

Staff Reporter

India must rely on its own genius and not copy the Chinese model, says Bardhan

— Photo: PTI

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee (right) with CPI leader A.B. Bardhan at a seminar in Kolkata on Saturday.

Kolkata: The relations between India and China have a global, strategic character and there is no scope for the two countries to contain each other, according to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Speaking at the inauguration of a seminar titled `India and China: The Next Decade' organised by the Observer Research Foundation and Centre for Peace Studies, Calcutta University, Mr. Mukherjee said the two countries should "feed each other's strengths and not exploit their differences."

"It is one of the priorities of our foreign policy to develop friendly and cooperative ties with China," he said.

Mr. Mukherjee said that both the Indian and Chinese governments were proactively addressing the contentious issues and the confidence building measures in military relations was expected "to erode the memories of 1962."

He said the opening of the third India, China post at Nathu La signified the "political intent to promote trans-border cooperation in a mutually beneficent manner." China is India's third largest trading partner and bilateral trade, which has grown by 37.5 per cent, is currently worth around $ 18 billion. He said the two countries should work for stability in the resource-rich region of Central Asia as well as cooperate to tackle the menace of international terrorism and climate change.

Speaking on the occasion, A.B. Bardhan, General Secretary, Communist Party of India, said that though the partnership between India and China was of great importance, India should proceed on the path of economic development according to its own genius and it was not advisable to copy the Chinese model of development.

Mr. Bardhan also expressed his reservation about India's export of iron ore to China and felt that the construction boom in China should not be at India's expense.