India and China plan ‘handshake across the Himalayas’

India and China will study new ways to ease tensions along their ill-defined border, Chinese premier Li Keqiang said yesterday in his first foreign trip since taking office, which comes just weeks after a military standoff between the Asian giants in the Himalayas.

The number two in the Chinese leadership offered New Delhi a “handshake across the Himalayas” and said the world’s most populous nations could become a new engine for the global economy if they could avoid such irritants.

“Both sides believe that we need to improve the various border-related mechanisms that we have put into place and make them more efficient. We need to appropriately manage and resolve our differences,” Li said at a joint news conference with India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh, where both men appeared relaxed.