China hopes for better ties with India in 2017

China hopes for better ties with India in 2017 by resolving differences over India's admission into elite Nuclear Suppliers Group and listing of JeM chief Masood Azhar as terrorist by the UN as the two nations signed off their most engaging year bogged down by the twin issues.

"This year has seen a steady development of China-India relations, with the two countries marching towards the goal of building a more closely-knit partnership for development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told PTI summing up Beijing's perception of the outgoing year and its vision of Sino-Indian ties for the next year.

"The leadership of the two countries have maintained frequent contacts" despite the differences, she said, referring to a number of meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at multilateral foras like G-20 and BRICS summit.

She said that the dialogues and consultations have been going on in an orderly fashion at all levels and practical cooperation in various fields has been carried out steadily.

"As close neighbours, it is natural for our two big countries to have differences, and we have been exploring ways to resolve them through diplomatic channels. The main theme of China-India relations remains friendship and cooperation," she said, holding out hope for a more fruitful year for bilateral ties next year with the resolution of the two major issues.

"For the year 2017, China would like to work with India for better implementation of the important consensus reached between the leadership, greater political mutual trust, wider mutually beneficial cooperation and properly management of differences so as to ensure a sustained and steady development of China-India relations," she said.

The strength of the deep diplomatic engagement between the two sides virtually begins with the New Year as China's second "technical hold" on India's application for listing Azhar as terrorist under UN's 1267 Committee will expire on December 31, opening a new window for both the countries to address the issue which cast a shadow on Beijing’s claim to fight terrorism in all forms as the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad is already listed by the UN as terror group.

With the end of the second technical hold by China, India is expected to submit a fresh application backed by a charge sheet filed recently by the National Investigation Agency against Azhar for his involvement in the Pathankot terror attack.

The charge sheet was expected to further reinforce India's case for a UN ban against Azhar. Other members of the Committee including UNSC permanent members, US, Russia, France and UK had backed it earlier.