Xi Jinping unveils 5 proposals for improving Sino-India ties

Unveiling a five-point formula to improve relations with India, China's newly elected President Xi Jinping today said the resolution of the boundary dispute between the two sides "won't be easy" and pending its final settlement "peace and tranquility" should be maintained on the border without affecting the overall ties.

59-year-old Xi, who took over as the head of Communist Party, President and military chief, completing a rare triad of power, sent clear signals of boosting bilateral relations with India and expressed his keenness to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) in his first contact with top Indian leadership after his inauguration.

The first leader born after China's independence in 1949, Xi also spoke of the need for India and China with a combined population of 2.5 billion to cooperate in multilateral for a in to safeguard the "legitimate rights and interests" of developing countries. He said China sees its ties with India as "one of the most important bilateral relationships".

"The border question is a complex issue left from history and solving the issue won't be easy. However, as long as we keep up friendly consultations, we can eventually arrive at a fair reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement.

"Pending the final settlement of the boundary question the two sides should work together and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas and prevent the border question from affecting the overall development of bilateral relations," Xi told PTI in an interview.

The new President was replying to a question on what policy the new Chinese leadership will pursue towards India and whether there would be any change in its position on the border issue. India asserts that the border dispute covered about 4,000 km, while China claims that it confined to about 2,000 km to the area of Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers as Southern Tibet.

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