Meeting on the sidelines of the BRIC summit here on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao of China agreed to widen and deepen the scope of cooperation between their two countries, including in the areas of education, defence and trade.
Briefing reporters on the meeting, the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said the two leaders also agreed to encourage their companies to invest in each other's countries and facilitate greater market access for each other's products.
They also spoke of the need to maintain even closer cooperation on international issues like climate change, the Doha round and terrorism.
Dr. Singh expressed his condolences for the victims of the Qinghai earthquake, the spokesman said.
Asked whether contentious questions like China's policy of issuing ‘stapled visas' to Kashmir-domiciled Indian citizens and the recent incidents of computer hacking were discussed, the spokesman said the two Foreign Ministers had already reviewed the full range of issues in their meeting earlier this month and that “some of the matters of concern” were flagged then.
The spokesman said Dr. Singh introduced India's newly designated Special Representative for border talks — National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon — to President Hu and State Councillor Dai Binguuo. He said both sides expressed their satisfaction with the manner in which the SR mechanism was operating and felt the next round of talks on the border should be held at an early date.
