India and China agree there’s room for two giants

Trying for cooperation instead of competition, the leaders of China and India pledged Tuesday to double trade between the two Asian nations and to step up efforts to resolve a boundary dispute that has embittered their relations for nearly half a century.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh emerged from talks here with declarations that the growth of one country did not have to come at the expense of the other.

“There is enough space for the two countries to develop together in a mutually supportive manner while remaining sensitive to each other’s concerns and aspirations, as befits good neighbors,” Singh said.

His remarks came on the second day of a four-day tour of India by Hu, the first by a Chinese president in a decade.

The visit, and a reciprocal one Singh is scheduled to make next year, is designed to ease some of the mistrust that has bedeviled ties between the two giants, which together account for one-third of the world’s population.

But much of the summit’s value was symbolic. China and India continue to compete globally for natural resources to stoke their burgeoning economies, and their militaries still eye each other with suspicion 44 years after a fierce border war high in the Himalayas.

Hu and Singh signed a number of minor deals emphasizing cooperation in areas such as agricultural research and educational exchanges. A hotline is to be set up between the countries’ foreign ministers. There was also vague agreement to deepen cooperation in the politically tricky field of nuclear energy, without specifying how or when.

The most contentious issues, however, were ignored or glossed over, including China’s historical alliance with India’s archrival, Pakistan, and the shelter India provides to the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan exiles, whom the communist regime in Beijing regards as separatist.

And despite the promise to work harder to resolve their border dispute, negotiations have only inched forward. The difficulty of the task was underlined recently when China’s ambassador to New Delhi made comments laying claim to territory in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, to which officials here took terse exception.

At Tuesday’s summit, Singh and Hu chose to emphasize one of the areas in which their nations have made sizable progress: their bilateral trade, which is forecast to hit about $20 billion this year. The leaders said they would try to push that to $40 billion by 2010.

Currently, India imports manufactured goods and commodities such as silk from China, while pharmaceuticals, steel and other raw materials flow in the opposite direction.

“Trade is leading India and China,” said Mohan Guruswamy of the Center for Policy Alternatives in New Delhi. “Dozens of Chinese companies are waiting in the wings to come into India.... Indian companies have set up shop in Shanghai.”

But distrust pervades economic ties as well. Chinese businesses complain of continued restrictions by India on their involvement in politically sensitive areas such as telecommunications and port operations.

And it remains to be seen how much the two sides can boost cooperation on nuclear energy. Last week, the U.S. Senate approved a proposal to allow the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to India, reversing a decades-long policy that sought to isolate New Delhi for its steadfast refusal to sign the global Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Hu is to travel this week to Pakistan, where he is expected to unveil a nuclear-boosting deal for the government there, a potential counterpunch that has raised hackles in both India and the United States.

He made no public mention here of such a pending accord or of Beijing’s long-standing relationship with Islamabad. Instead, he accentuated the positive during what has been proclaimed the “Year of Friendship” between China and India.

“Our two countries need to carry forward our friendship in the long run, work hand in hand for cooperation and common development, and work together to promote peace and development in Asia and the world at large,” Hu said.

henry.chu@latimes.com