BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN: China and India are natural strategic partners, said Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday. Wang made the remark after an important bilateral meeting with his counterpart Salman Khurshid here on the sidelines of the 20th Asean Regional Forum meet.

Significantly for India, Wang said after his meeting with Khurshid that the just concluded 16th round of talks over the boundary issue were "very successful and good progress was made". This was in reply to a query from this newspaper about boundary dispute.

"Just as you said the 16th round of special representatives consultation was just held in Beijing and as far as I know it was very successful round of discussions and good progress was made," said Wang, adding that the two countries had discussions like two brothers.

Wang said after Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to India, Beijing was looking forward to receiving PM Manmohan Singh later this year. "We believe that these two visits are like sowing the seeds in spring and reaping the fruits in autumn. We believe our two countries are natural strategic partners and we should engage in all round cooperation in a wide range of areas," said Wang. He added the important thing was to constantly push forward ties between the two countries.

The 16th round of talks between the Special Representatives of India and China on the Boundary Question, National Security Advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon and State Councillor Yang Jiechi took place in Beijing on June 28-29. The two countries were locked in an impasse for weeks in April and early May with India alleging that Chinese troops had crossed over into the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and pitched tents. The standoff, for a while, even threatened Premier Li’s visit to India in May before the troops pulled out from both sides.

Khurshid started his meeting earlier with Wang by talking about how "remarkably productive" Li’s visit to Delhi in May was. Wang responded by saying that the very fact that the two foreign ministers were meeting for the third time in the past few months showed how close the two countries were. He said "the cherry on the cake" would be PM Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing scheduled towards the end of this year. With his hand around Wang, Khurshid declared "Asia’s future lies here together".

"We have reviewed the work that has to be done, that has already been done since Premier Li’s visit and among the things that we are going to do is several consultations on areas that we are interested in," said Khurshid.

Wang said as two big countries, India and China had an important responsibility. "We believe that we shoulder this common responsibility to regional and global peace and stability," he added.