India's Singh arrives on China flight

Relations have only warmed in recent years

India's Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh has arrived in China on the first direct commercial flight from Delhi to Beijing in 40 years.

We owe it to ... all humanity to progress our friendship and cooperation

Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh

Mr Singh was met by Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen and is due to hold talks with his counterpart, Tang Jiaxuan and Prime Minister Zhu Rongji.

Discussions during his five-day visit are expected to focus on border issues and efforts to combat terrorism.

Mr Singh travelled to Beijing on board the China Eastern Airlines plane which flew from the Chinese capital to Delhi on Thursday, inaugurating the new link.

The service has been hailed as a milestone in improving relations between the two Asian giants and former enemies.

Growing interest

India and China fought a brief but brutal border war in 1962 and have viewed each other with suspicion ever since.

The new air link has been hailed as a milestone

Mutual mistrust reached another high in 1998 following India's nuclear tests, but growing business interests in recent years have helped break the ice.

Mr Singh was upbeat on his arrival that relations were thawing.

"As our two countries travel on the road to development and of improving the well-being of 2.5 billion human beings ... we owe it to them, our own people, indeed to all humanity to progress our friendship and cooperation," he was quoted as saying.

The direct air link is expected to boost trade links between the two Asian giants.

China Eastern Airlines is operating a twice-a-week flight connecting Beijing and Shanghai with Delhi, using an Airbus 340 aircraft.

Scope for cooperation

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji visited India in January and said then that his country was committed to forging closer economic ties.

Total trade between India and China stands at about $3bn and the prime minister said the two countries would aim to increase it to $10bn this year.

China and India are both touted as economic superpowers of the future, and there is plenty of scope for co-operation between them.

For example China believes it can draw on India's vast reservoir of trained computer scientists to develop the software side of its information technology sector.

A visit to China by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee is planned for later this year.