'India-China relations are in good shape'

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says India-China relations are in "very good shape" and negotiations are underway to resolve the "complicated" border issue.

Ahead of his visit to Beijing, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said India-China relations are in "very good shape" and negotiations are underway to resolve the "complicated" border issue.

HT Image

Asked whether he saw hardening of stand by China on the border issue, Singh told reporters "the process of resolving this issue is on.... It is a complicated matter".

The Prime Minister, who leaves on Sunday on a three-day visit to China, responded to questions at Rashtrapati Bhavan after senior bureaucraft Vinod Rai was sworn in as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by President Pratibha Patil.

Singh expressed satisfaction at the ongoing negotiations between Special Representatives of the two countries on the border issue. "I am satisfied", he said noting that the negotiations were being held under agreed parameters and guiding principles.

"We have very good relations with China. My visit is a return visit," he said while referring to the visits made by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to India.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week said that nothing dramatic should be expected from the visit.

"The visit is expected to be successful. But if you are expecting that there would be any dramatic turnaround on certain issues, which are long-pending, then it would perhaps be too much," Mukherjee had said.