Foreign Ministers of India, China review bilateral ties

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met to review the entire gamut of bilateral ties, two days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had an interaction with Premier Wen Jiabao in Thailand and agreed not to allow differences to impede development of bilateral relations.

The boundary dispute and related issues, issuance of visas by China to Kashmiris on loose sheets of papers instead of passports and reports of China building a dam on Brahmaputra dam were the likely subjects to be discussed by the two Foreign Ministers.
The two sides would also look at ways to step up trade and investment and cooperation on climate change.
Yang is here for the Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting that took place in the morning.
"Nothing is off the table", External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said ahead of the meeting adding the two leaders will discuss the entire gamut of relationship.
He noted that there are differences between New Delhi and Beijing but both sides have maturity, mechanisms and framework to address them.

The last few months have witnessed war of words between India and China over Arunachal Pradesh and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
India has also objected to Chinese visas to Kashmiris being issued on loose sheets of paper instead of on passports, an apparent suggestion that the state is disputed.

New Delhi is also unhappy over Chinese participation in infrastructure projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and voiced opposition to construction of a dam by China on Brahmaputra river.
The Prime Ministers of the two countries, who met in Thailand on the sidelines of ASEAN-India and East Asia Summits, sought to put behind the recent irritants as they agreed to "strengthen efforts to build political trust and understanding."
"We discussed all these issues and agreed that the existing mechanism of bilateral cooperation should be used to resolve all issues in the spirit of strategic and cooperative partnership," Singh told reporters later.
Pointing out that the two countries had "established government channels available to exchange views" on all bilateral issues, Singh said "one doesn't have, therefore, to go to the media to accentuate or exaggerate the amount of differences that prevail."