NEW DELHI, April 3: Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has said that a solution to the boundary dispute is possible if Beijing and New Delhi show mutual accommodation “while taking the reality into account”.

Relations between the two countries have entered a “new period of comprehensive cooperation” which far outweigh differences, the Chinese premier said in a an interview to Press Trust of India on Sunday in Beijing ahead of his four-day visit to India beginning from April 9.

“We both regard each other as important partner of exchange and cooperation enjoying growing political trust,” said Wen Jiabao, who will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders during the visit.

Asked as if he saw a breakthrough in resolving the vexed boundary dispute in the near future, he said: “China and India have reached important consensus. That is why both sides should view and handle relations from a strategic high ground, bearing in mind the larger picture, and refuse to

let questions left over from

history disrupt and impede

the development of bilateral relations.”

He said special representatives on the boundary question have had four meetings in which the two sides conducted “useful” discussions on the political guiding principles with “sound progress”.

“I believe that as long as the two sides act in the spirit of mutual understanding and mutual accommodation, respect history while taking the reality into account, they will be able to find a mutually acceptable solution to the boundary questions through negotiations on an equal footing,” he said.

About recent developments in India-Pakistan ties, such as the decision to start the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service and greater people-to-people contact, the Chinese premier said India and Pakistan were “important countries in the region and they both shoulder a major responsibility for stability and development in South Asia”.

“Proceeding from the larger interests, leaders of the two countries set in motion their comprehensive dialogue and promoted regional cooperation with positive results. China welcomes and supports all these efforts,” Wen Jiabao added.

China, he said, hoped that Pakistan and India could keep up the momentum of their current dialogue, increase mutual trust, seek to resolve all their differences peacefully towards amicable co-existence, enhance their mutually-beneficial cooperation and work together to promote peace and development in the region.—APP