'India, China to have annual meetings on Defence'

New Delhi, May 29: India and China have agreed to persist with their efforts to resolve the boundary dispute and that a date would be fixed for the annual meeting of the Defence Dialogue Mechanism.

The decisions were taken at the 40-minute talks External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had with his Chinese counterpart Yanch Jiechi at Hamburg yesterday on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

This was the first meeting between the two after Mr Yang had taken over as Foreign Minister, official spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters.

""The discussion also touched upon the boundary question and it was agreed that Special Representatives will continue with their work with the encouragement and guidance of the political leadership,"" he said.

The review of the progress in the talks to resolve the boundary issue assumes significance in the light of the Chinese refusal to issue visa to an IAS officer from Arunachal Pradesh which had prompted India to cancel the proposed trip of 107 civil servants for a mid-level training programme in China.

The Ministers also reviewed progress under MOU for defence cooperation (2006) and said that dates would be fixed for the annual meeting of the Defence Dialogue Mechanism, the spokesman said.

The two leaders discussed bilateral relationship in the light of the ten-pronged strategy to strengthen their ties as spelt out during President Hu Jintao"s visit to India in November 2006.

They said high-level contacts such as meetings on G-8 sideline, at the Foreign Ministers level and Foreign Office Consultations should continue.

They reviewed the trade and economic relationship and noted that bilateral trade had crossed 25 billion US dollars and at this rate we should be able to meet the target of 40 billion dollars by 2010.

The Chinese Foreign Minister said that in the first four months this year bilateral trade had reached 11.4 billion dollars, a rise of 56 per cent.

Other issues discussed included cooperation for the success of the India-China Tourism Year and Youth exchanges. Multilateral issues, particularly UN reforms, including Security Council reforms were also discussed.

Mr Mukherjee also had a half an hour meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Ms. Anna Fotyga. Discussions covered bilateral relations particularly trade and investment, cooperation in multilateral fora and the situation in Afghanistan.

UNI