India, China to Form Strategic Partnership

NEW DELHI India and China agreed Monday to form a "strategic partnership," creating a diplomatic bond between Asia's two emerging powers that would tie together nearly one-third of the world's population.

The agreement, announced during a South Asia tour by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, reflects a major shift in relations between the two nuclear countries, whose ties have long been defined by mutual suspicion. It also is another step in a charm offensive by Beijing, which is trying to build ties with its neighbors and ensure regional stability for economic growth.

The United States, which also has courted warmer ties with India, welcomed efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to find ways of cooperating.
"This is an important visit. We are working to promote friendly ties of cooperation between our two countries," Wen said after a ceremonial welcome by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at New Delhi's presidential palace.

Wen also has been to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in recent days, hoping to reassure its neighbors that increasing clout does not make it a regional danger.

"Some people are worried that a stronger and more developed China would pose a threat to other countries. Such worry is completely misplaced," Wen told a meeting of Asian officials in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, last week.

But the agreement with India also underscored the power the two nations are increasingly comfortable about wielding.

"India and China can together reshape the world order," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday.

Left out of the equation, for now, was the United States, which announced last month it wanted to help India become a world power. However, India and China, which together have a population of more than 2.3 billion, took care not to offend the United States on Monday.

Chinese leaders insist they're not worried about the warming U.S.-India ties, despite Washington's apparent attempts to counter China's power in Asia by boosting India's economic and political profile.