Sino-India Defence Pact does not Target Anyone: Wen Jiabao

New Delhi, May 30 (UNI) Describing the historic Sino-India pact on defence cooperation as beneficial for the growth of bilateral military ties -- an important component of state-to-state relations, China today made clear that it was not targeted at any third country.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, during talks in Beijing with visiting Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, noted that the bilateral talks yesterday between the Defence Ministers of the two countries had reached "extensive consensus" and had been "a success" in further cementing state-to-state relations.

Minister Mukherjee, now into the third day of his six-day official visit to China, acknowledged that he had had "a very useful dialogue" with his Chinese counterpart yesterday. "The MoU (signed yesterday between the two countries) provides a framework for further expansion of bilateral cooperation in the defence sector." According to reports received here, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao -- commenting on the Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation which Minister Mukherjee and his Chinese counterpart Cao Gangchuan inked yesterday -- told mediapersons that the Chinese side holds that the signing of the MoU will be beneficial to the growth of Sino-Indian military relations and "will not target any third country".

On the uneasy ties between Beijing and New Delhi in the past, the spokesman asserted that the two neighbours have enjoyed friendly ties in the past 2,200 years. The misunderstanding existed for a minor part of their bilateral ties.

Meanwhile, the state-run 'China Daily' in an editorial on Mr Mukherjee's visit, urged both India and China to bury their 'unpleasant past'.

"India and China must bury their unpleasant past. Friendliness accounts for 99.99 per cent of the 2,200-year-old Sino-Indian exchanges and misunderstanding merely 0.01 per cent. It is high time we buried that 0.01 per cent," the leading English newspaper said.

It noted that since the "strategic cooperative partnership" was forged between China and India last year, impressive advances had been made in economic and security co-operation between the two sides.

"But there remains a lack of mutual trust, particularly with relation to military affairs. This is a result of the lingering influence of the border clashes between the two nations in 1962, India's development of nuclear weapons and the recent nuclear cooperation deal between New Delhi and Washington," it said.

"Against this backdrop, Defence Minister Mukherjee's China visit has particularly positive connotations in terms of strengthening the two countries' military mutual trust, as well as overcoming obstacles in the way of developing the Sino-Indian strategic partnership," the paper said.

UNI DG LR KP2122