China respects 'will' of SAARC members; vows to deepen ties

Beijing: China on Friday said it will respect the collective "will" of the SAARC even though the just concluded Kathmandu summit did not discuss any plans for the expansion of the bloc despite keen interest shown by the Communist giant to join the eight-member body.

"We are ready to lift relations with SAARC and contribute to the peace, stability and prosperity of the South Asian region on the basis of respecting SAARC nations' will," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said here while replying to a question on the Kathmandu SAARC summit, which concluded on Thursday.

"The 18th SAARC summit was held successfully. We congratulated them on that," Hua said, adding China attaches great importance to its relations with SAARC.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, who headed the Chinese delegation to the summit, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony and raised measures to further deepen cooperation with SAARC, Hua said.

China also named an envoy to SAARC recently, she added.

In his speech at the SAARC summit, Liu said China wants to increase trade between South Asia and China to USD 150 billion from around USD 100 billion at present and invest USD 30 billion in the next five years.

China, which is an Observer of the SAARC along with Australia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Mauritius, Myanmar, the US and the European Union, said ahead of the summit that it would like to elevate its partnership with the regional bloc.

"We value the role played by SAARC and stand ready to elevate our partnership with it so that together we can play a greater role and contribute constructively to the region," Hua has told a media briefing here ahead of the summit.

The Chinese official media has also quoted Nepali politicians and diplomats supporting China's bid for a permanent member status in the SAARC.

India's External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said yesterday that "there is no proposal for expansion of SAARC," when asked whether India has received a formal request from any SAARC country for China's membership.

The two-day summit, however, adopted a resolution favouring greater interaction with the observer nations in SAARC.

"The SAARC leaders directed the Programming Committee to engage the SAARC observers into productive, demand-driven and objective project based cooperation in priority areas as identified by the member states," the resolution added.