India on Friday welcomed the positive strokes from China and said the two countries can walk together keeping in mind each other’s sensitivities, concerns and aspirations.
Responding to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s statement that despite some tests and difficulties, the China-India relationship continues to grow and that the Chinese ‘dragon’ and the Indian ‘elephant’ must not fight each other, but dance with each other, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the good relations between the two countries also have global significance.
“As two major countries and large economies, relations between India and China are not just important bilaterally, but also have regional and global significance. During the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping in Xiamen in September last year, the two leaders agreed that sound development of relations between India and China are a factor of stability amidst today’s global uncertainties, and that the two countries should not allow their differences to become disputes,” Raveesh said.
“Since then, both sides have maintained regular exchanges at all levels, which have helped in strengthening bilateral communication. We are willing to work with the Chinese side to develop our relations based on commonalities, while dealing with differences on the basis of mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s interests, concerns and aspirations,” he added.
Yi during a press conference in Beijing on Thursday had stressed that despite difficulties, China has both upheld its legitimate rights and interests and taken care to preserve the relationship with India. He added that China and India must do everything to empathise with and support each other and to avoid mutual suspicion and attrition.
“In this sense, mutual trust is the most precious commodity in China-India relations. With political trust, not even the Himalayas can stop us from strengthening friendly exchanges; without it, not even level land can bring us together. let me put this to our Indian friends: our shared understandings far outstrip our differences and our common interests far outweigh our frictions. China is willing and ready to inherit and take forward our traditional friendship and be a friend and partner of the Indian people. I hope the two sides will be free from mental inhibitions and meet each other halfway. let us replace suspicion with trust, manage differences through dialogue, and build a future through cooperation,” Yi said.
In an attempt to soothe the bruised relations, the MEA in a letter to all government officials had urged them to keep away from Dalai lama’s events in India as the relations between the two countries are at a sensitive stage. MAE, on the other hand, maintained that Dalai lama is a respected religious figure in India and has the freedom to carry out his religious activities.