NEW DELHI: India and China should be partners contributing to each other’s success and a cooperative “pas de deux” between the dragon and the elephant is the only right choice for the two countries, Beijing said while welcoming PM Modi’s “positive” remarks in a podcast in which he had endorsed signs of a rapprochement in ties since Oct last year.
In the interaction with Lex Fridman, Modi had also strongly backed Donald Trump’s policies and the US president even shared the podcast on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Modi had said on Sunday that the border situation with China was normalising since his meeting with President Xi Jinping in Kazan in Oct and trust would return in the relationship “slowly but surely”. Seeking a cooperative relationship, he also said it was natural for India and China to have differences, and the focus should be on ensuring that these don’t turn into disputes.
We stand ready to work with India, says China
Building upon PM Modi’s remarks, the Chinese foreign ministry said that Sino-Indian ties were characterised by mutual learning and friendly exchanges for over 2,000 years.” China appreciated PM Modi’s recent positive statements. The successful meeting between President Xi and PM Modi in Kazan last Oct provided strategic guidance for the improvement and development of bilateral ties. Both sides have earnestly followed through on the important common understandings of our leaders, strengthened exchanges and practical cooperation at all levels, and achieved a series of positive outcomes,” a ministry spokesperson said, responding to a question at a media briefing.
The official added China stood ready to work with India to implement the understandings that both leaders had reached in their meeting. Asserting that China’s ties with India contributed to the progress of civilisations and humanity, the official also said the two largest developing countries had a shared task to achieve “development and revitalisation, and should understand and support each other, and help each other succeed”.”This serves the fundamental interests of over 2.8 billion people in the two countries, meets the common aspiration of regional countries, follows the historical trend of the Global South growing stronger, and is conducive to world peace, stability, development and prosperity,” the official said.
India and China had reached an agreement in Oct last year to complete the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh and effectively end the nearly-five-year-old military stand-off.Modi said in his podcast that efforts were on to ensure the pre-2020 situation.”China stands ready to work with India to implement the important common understandings between the two leaders, take the 75th anniversary of China-India diplomatic relations as an opportunity, promote exchange and cooperation in various fields and at all levels, and advance China-India relations on the track of sound and stable development,” the official said.