NEW DELHI, Jan 10: India is not part of any effort to contain China and its engagement with Beijing is an imperative necessity, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Thursday days ahead of his maiden visit to Beijing.

“I have made it clear to the Chinese leadership that India is not part of any so-called contain China effort,” he told reporters. He was asked to comment on a controversial four-nation security dialogue among the United States, Japan, Australia and India.

Dr Singh, who is making his maiden visit to China as Prime Minister from Sunday, was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying there is no misunderstanding between India and China on the proposed dialogue among the four nations which, he added, “never got going”.

China has looked at the quadrilateral talks with suspicion and had even asked the countries to explain the reason for this arrangement which, it felt, propagated cold-war mentality.

“China is our largest neighbour and in many ways, engagement with China is an imperative necessity,” Dr Singh said.

He will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and call on President Hu Jintao during his three-day visit. “We will discuss all issues with frankness and friendship. Engagement with China is a priority,” Dr Singh said.

AFP adds:

FIVE ACCORDS TO BE SIGNED: India and China will sign five agreements, including a pact between the two state-run railways, during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China, a cabinet minister said on Thursday.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said the accords would also cover sectors such as housing, geo-sciences, land resource management and traditional medicine.

“The memorandum of understanding covering the rail sector will promote cooperation between the Chinese and the Indian railways,” Dasmunshi told reporters without elaborating.

India has so far not commented on a Chinese train service to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa launched last year but is apprehensive over Beijing’s plans to extend it to Nepal.

Dasmunshi said the pact on land management would aim to boost bilateral cooperation “based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity” on “land administration, resettlement and rehabilitation.” He also said the pact on traditional medicine would provide a legal framework to jointly produce and market Indian and Chinese traditional medicines.

Observers warned the accord could face flak as conservation groups say Indian tigers are randomly slaughtered for body parts that are smuggled to the flourishing Chinese medicine market.

“If you are expecting that there would be any dramatic turnaround on certain issues, which are long-pending, then it would perhaps be too much,” Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee warned last week.

India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres of its territory, while Beijing claims the whole of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which is 90,000 square kilometres.

Singh said ongoing military cooperation between Australia, Japan, India and the United States was not directed against China.