India PM, China\\\'s Xi pledge stronger ties

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on the need to resolve a decades-old border dispute during talks before the BRICS summit in Brazil, a statement said Tuesday. The leaders also pledged to strengthen trade and diplomatic ties during the 80-minute meeting in Fortaleza, their first since nationalist hardliner Modi won landslide elections in May. ‘Both sides emphasised on the need to find a solution to the Boundary Question,’ the Indian government said in a statement in New Delhi. ‘The Prime Minister stressed the importance of strengthening mutual trust and confidence, and maintaining peace and tranquility on the border.’ Modi said in a tweet he had ‘a very fruitful meeting’ with Xi and they had discussed a wide range of issues. During the bilateral talks, Modi accepted Xi's invitation to visit Beijing later this year, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said. Xi also invited Modi to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Beijing in November, although India is not a member. Modi stressed the need to address a trade imbalance between the two countries, which is heavily skewed in China's favour. Modi has pledged to boost road, rail and port projects, called for enhanced Chinese investment in Indian infrastructure. Xi agreed the need for balanced trade and said ‘enhanced services exports from India to China could be one way to address the issue’. China is India’s biggest trading partner. But relations are still dogged by mutual suspicion -- a legacy of a brief but bloody war in 1962 over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas that China claims as its own, according to AFP.