The warming of relations between India and China was reflected in the first-ever ministerial-level science accord signed here today by the science ministers of the two nations.

Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal inked a Memorandum of Understanding with his Chinese counterpart Xu Guanhua which paves the way for setting up of a joint “Steering Committee” to be chaired jointly by the two ministers to “guide, coordinate and facilitate” science cooperation between the two countries. The steering committee has been tasked to prepare a roadmap by November 2006 when President Hu Jintao visits New Delhi.

Sibal termed his visit “exceptionally successful” and said future co-operation between the neighbours would be a win-win situation since it would be “a marriage of hardware and software strengths” of the two. Sibal, while acknowledging that co-operation between India and China had been “rather slow” till now because of historical reasons, feels the new accord can take science co-operation between the two nations to the level of “strategic relationship” .

The two governments are also setting up a “Sino-Indian Nano Science Forum” and the other areas of co-operation include development of futuristic applications in sectors like genomics and weather prediction.

Sibal’s five-day visit to Beijing comes in the wake of Indian scientists raising an alarm about China’s growing dominance in science. “Do something, China is outpacing India,” was the message from Indian scientists to PM Manmohan Singh in a July 8 meeting of his Scientific Advisory Council.