Manmohan speaks to Hu

PM assures the Chinese president that the quadripartite group meeting would not affect India-China relations, reports Nilova Roy Chaudhury.

China's apprehensions about the quadripartite group meeting between the United States, Japan, Australia and India were strong enough for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to have to speak to Chinese President Hu Jintao on the issue. The issue would not impact India-China relations, the PM said.

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"I spoke to President Hu and explained that there was no question of ganging up (against China)," Singh said. "We (the quadripartite) met to exchange views on development from our experiences as democracies," he added. "There is no security implication in the quadripartite group."

After they spoke at the Group of Eight summit outreach meeting, Hu was satisfied, Singh said.

The Prime Minister was answering queries from reporters after he released a book,

The New Asian Power Dynamic

, at his Race Course Road residence on Wednesday.

The first ever meeting of the four countries was held on May 24-25 at Manila. Beijing was apprehensive enough of the meeting to seek an explanation about what the grouping meant.