WILL IRON OUT DIFFERENCES WITH INDIA, SAYS CHINA

Beijing, April 28: China on Sunday took note of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks over PLA’s incursion into the Depsang Valley and said it is willing to work with New Delhi to deal with differences while maintaining peace at borders and forging strategic cooperative partnership.

“We have noted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement,” a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry said.

“The two sides have been in communication through the working mechanism for consultation and coordination on boundary affairs, border meetings and diplomatic channels for a solution to the incident in part of the western section of the China-India border,” the statement said.

According to the statement, the reaction was in response to a question over Dr Singh’s remarks that Chinese troops incursion into the Depsang Valley can be settled through talks.

“We stand ready to work with India to properly deal with differences and maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas in a bid to boost the healthy and stable development of ChinaIndia strategic and cooperative partnership,” the statement said.

It added, “While actively developing friendly cooperation in recent years, China and India have committed themselves to settling disputes through peaceful negotiation and preventing the disputes from affecting the development of bilateral relations”.

The two sides are currently trying to resolve the issue through border consultation mechanism inked last year even as external affairs minister Salman Khurshid is due to visit Beijing on May 9, which officials said would be followed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to New Delhi.