Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held talks with visiting Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Wednesday, and both spoke highly of the bilateral relations between China and India.

During the meeting, Tang said Sino-Indian relationship had reached a stage of comprehensive development and had strong influence to the region and the world as well.

China would continue to pursue a good-neighborly policy towards India and hoped to handle bilateral relations from strategic point of views, Tang said, adding that China was ready to expand and deepen bilateral exchange and cooperation in various fields and to push forward the long-term and constructive and cooperative partnership relations to a new stage.

Prime Minister Singh said friendly cooperation was conducive to both countries and was significant to the world's order. Now Indian-Chinese relations were moving towards a right direction and both sizes should seize the opportunity to strengthen cooperation on the basis of mutual benefit.

He also expressed his warm expectation of an early visit by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India, and was ready to make the visit a fruitful one with joint efforts from Chinese side so as to further push forward bilateral relations.

During his three-day visit to India, Tang also met with Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and National Security Advisor J.N. Dixit on the promotion of bilateral cooperation in all fields.

Tang arrived here Monday night from Pakistan and left Wednesday night for Malaysia to continue his four-nation Asian tour.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2004)