Sino-India ties have global dimension, not merely bilateral: President Patil

New Delhi, May 25 (ANI): President Pratibha Devisingh Patil, who will be visiting China from May 26-31 and will hold discussions with the Chinese leadership, said on Tuesday that developing friendly cooperation with India's largest neighbour is one of the priorities of the country's foreign policy.

Commenting on her visit, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, President Patil said her visit is part of the process of high-level contacts between the two countries.

President Patil said that Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to India in 2006 had generated a great deal of goodwill between the two countries, and added, that during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to China in 2008, the two countries concluded a "Shared Vision for the 21st Century" which forms the basis for bilateral cooperation on global issues.

"We both agree that our partnership goes beyond the purely bilateral and has an important global dimension," President Patil told the Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

She said that India and China are two large and populous countries and both of them are focussed on enhancing economic growth and social progress, so there are many areas in which the two countries can exchange views and learn from each other's experiences.

She said that as developing nations, India and China have similar approaches and viewpoints on many global issues.

India and China have successfully carried out close cooperation within such international frameworks as G-20, BRIC countries and BASIC countries.

The two countries also coordinated with each other at the UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit. (ANI)