China says ‘pleased’ at India-Japan rail cooperation

By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, Sep 13 (IANS) As New Delhi and Tokyo take forward their cooperation in building India's first bullet train, China on Wednesday said it is pleased at the development, and added that Beijing is ready to promote such infrastructure cooperation with New Delhi, including in railways.

"China is pleased to see the infrastructure cooperation among regional countries, including the high-speed railway," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.

"And we stand ready to promote cooperation with India and other regional countries to promote regional development," he added.

"As to the railway cooperation, I can tell you that it is part of political cooperation between China and India."

The Foreign Ministry's reaction comes as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is visiting India on Wednesday for two days, during which he will hold annual summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both will lay the foundation stone of the ambitious Rs 1.08 lakh crore Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.

China and Japan are vying with each other for developing bullet trains in India and the region.

"We have reached important consensus in this regard. According to my information, the relevant competent authorities between the two countries have mainlined communications on promoting, increasing the speed of the railway in the current projects," Geng added.