China’s PM visits India to settle boundary row, boost ties

PanARMENIAN.Net - Just weeks after a tense border standoff, China's new premier visited India on Sunday, May 19 on his first foreign trip as the neighboring giants look to speed up efforts to settle a decades-old boundary dispute and boost economic ties, AP reported.

China says Premier Li Keqiang's choice of India for his first trip abroad since taking office in March shows the importance Beijing attaches to improving relations with New Delhi.

Jasjit Singh, a defense analyst and director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in New Delhi, said last month's border standoff was unlikely to overshadow Li's three-day visit, the first stop of a foreign tour in which he will also visit Pakistan, Switzerland and Germany.

Singh said Indian and Chinese leaders are likely to review border talks that have failed to produce a breakthrough despite 15 rounds of discussions over the past 10 years. The two sides also will probably discuss working together in Afghanistan after next year's U.S. pullout and cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, he said.

But tensions run high between the two nations. China already sees itself as Asia's great power, while India hopes its increasing economic and military might — though still far below its neighbor's — will eventually put it in the same league.

While China has worked to shore up relationships with Nepal and Sri Lanka in India's traditional South Asian sphere of influence, India has been venturing into partnerships with Southeast Asian nations.