Paris: With the Sino-Indian boundary not being demarcated, there will always be problems but the two countries should implement the consensus between their leadership and not let differences escalate, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Responding to questions at an interaction at the French Institute of International Relations on August 31, he said China is ready to manage all issues through dialogue with India.
Wang, who is currently on a tour of Europe, made the remarks in response to a question on China’s relations with India and Japan, though he did not directly refer to the latest provocative move by the Chinese military in eastern Ladakh.
His remarks came hours after the Indian Army said it has thwarted a provocative Chinese army movement in eastern Ladakh to “unilaterally” change the status quo on the southern bank of Pangong lake. It is also the first major incident in the area after the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15 in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed.
“China-India relations have recently attracted the attention of all parties,” Wang said.
“The boundary between China and India has not yet been demarcated, so there will always be problems of this kind. We are ready to manage all kinds of issues through dialogue with the Indian side,” he said.
At the same time, these issues should be placed in their proper place in bilateral relations, he said, adding that President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met many times and reached many important consensus.
“For example, instead of “the dragon and the elephant compete with each other,” “the dragon and the elephant dance together,” “1 plus 1 is not 2, but 11″ and so on. These are all philosophical views,” he said.
“For example, the leaders of the two countries agreed that bilateral cooperation outweighs differences and common interests outweigh conflicts.
“Differences should be managed and controlled, and in particular, differences should not escalate into conflicts. I think that various departments of the two countries should implement these important consensuses,” Wang said.
India and China have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks in the last two-and-half months but no significant headway has been made for a resolution to the border row in eastern Ladakh.
The foreign minister said China has a long history and more neighbours than any other country in the world.
“The long history of exchanges have always left problems of one kind or another. We are ready to work with our neighbours to resolve issues left over from history through friendly consultation in the spirit of building friendship and partnership with them,” he said.
Both China and India are great eastern countries with long civilisations, he said, adding that the two countries live close to each other and are highly complementary to each other.
China is ready to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with India to help India speed up its own development, he said.
China and India are also major developing countries and emerging economies. “We should jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries on the international stage and create a broader space for the development of emerging economies,” he said.
“If both China and India can develop, it will be 2.7 billion people moving towards modernisation, a spectacle never before seen in the course of human progress. I hope India can see and deal with problems from this perspective,” he said.
About China-Japan ties, Wang said this year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, and is a year of reflection.
“We should draw lessons from it and never allow the tragedy of history to repeat itself. And I think that’s what more and more people in Japan are seeing. I believe China-Japan relations will continue to move forward in the general direction of improvement,” the Chinese foreign minister observed.
