WUHAN: India and China have agreed to improve communication between theirmilitaries to maintain peace at the border, India’s foreign secretary saidon Saturday at the end of an ice-breaking trip to China by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Modi has spent the past 24 hours in the central Chinese city of Wuhan forinformal meetings with President Xi Jinping, months after a dispute over astretch of their high-altitude Himalayan border rekindled fears of warbetween the Asian nations.

Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters after Modi and Xiwrapped up their talks that both leaders had agreed their two countries hadthe maturity and wisdom to handle all their differences peacefully throughtalks.

“On the issue of the India-China boundary question, the two leadersendorsed the work of the special representatives in their efforts to find afair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement,” he said.

“And the two leaders also underscored that in the meantime it is importantto maintain peace and tranquillity in all areas of the India-China borderregion,” Gokhale said.

Billed by both sides as an informal meeting rather than a summit, with noneof the pomp and ceremony of a state visit such as 21-gun salutes, the twomen held talks on Friday that lasted far longer than expected. It alsoincluded a personal tour of a major museum by Xi

Chinese state media has praised the tone of the trip.

The overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’sDaily said in a front page commentary on Saturday “two great countriesought to have great cooperation”, and showed a large picture of the twoleaders shaking hands.

“There is reason to believe that this Wuhan meeting will increase mutualtrust, manage and control disputes, deepen cooperation and lead to a newphase in China-India relations,” it said.

“It is quite clear that strategic agreement between the two countries farexceeds the specific differences, and the need for cooperation far exceedslocal friction,” it said.

The official *China Daily* said in an editorial there was no denying mutualsuspicion was keeping the two countries from working together.

“Yet neither Beijing nor New Delhi calls the other an enemy, which meansboth expect bilateral ties to improve. Indeed, China and India are naturalpartners,” it said.

Despite the upbeat statements, which on Friday included Modi inviting Xi toIndia for a similar informal summit next year, the nations’ differences aresignificant.

As well as disputes over stretches of a 3,500 km border, they are bumpingup against each other in the Indian Ocean and squabbling over Xi’ssignature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

India signalled as recently as Tuesday its opposition to the grand tradeand transport plan because one of its branches runs throughPakistani-administered Kashmir, which India claims.

India has long been suspicious of China’s traditionally close ties withPakistan.

For its part, China has been concerned about U.S. efforts to draw Indiainto a maritime ‘quad’ of democracies, including Japan and Australia.

China is also suspicious of India’s hosting of the Dalai Lama and otherexiled Tibetans. – Agencies