BRICS Summit brings China, India closer: Chinese media

Xiamen (China), Sep 4 (IANS) The 9th BRICS Summit is indirectly serving as a venue to help mend ties between China and India after their recent border standoff, Chinese state-run media reported on Monday.

The summit brought together representatives from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in this picturesque coastal city to strengthen South-South cooperation and give a greater voice to the world's emerging economies, Xinhua news agency said.

Even the intermittent rain did not dampen the positive mood at the three-day summit, which ends on Tuesday, it said.

"I think the trend is good, everybody is optimistic," said Atul Dalakoti, Executive Director of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, who spoke to Xinhua right after attending the opening ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum on Sunday afternoon.

"I sense more internal optimism and external confidence," Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a prolific China expert and observer, said. But he admitted that fundamental differences exist among the BRICS countries.

Swaran Singh from the School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University remarked on the recent friction between China and India and how that did not get in the way of the friendly and cooperative summit atmosphere.

"Even China-India differences have been carefully kept aside and not allowed to intervene in their multilateral cooperation," he told Xinhua.

Dalakoti pointed out the rapid growth of China-India trade over the past 15 years.

Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a face-off that began in June and lasted more than two months, seriously disrupting bilateral ties. Both troops last month withdrew from the disputed region called Doklam.