May 14, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

BANGALORE, May 13: Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes said on Tuesday that Beijing was keen to build friendly ties with New Delhi and that the Asian giants’ disputes were minimal.

Mr Fernandes visited China last month, the first trip by an Indian defence minister since 1992.

“Every person I spoke to from (military chief and former president) Jiang Zemin to the one who served me the food, there was not anyone who did not want to be friends with India,” Fernandes told reporters.

He said Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had told him that “99.9 per cent of the time” the world’s two most populous countries had been friends.

“Only 0.1 per cent of the time there has been something messy in our relationship. We will forget that and try to set right whatever has gone wrong but we have to build on 99.9 per cent,” he said.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is expected to travel to China next month, the first visit by an Indian premier there in a decade. Mr Fernandes said no exact dates had been fixed.—AFP