Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 17: China has highly appreciated the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “positive remarks” on the Indo-China relations in his podcast with the US computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman and said a “dragon-elephant dance” symbolising mutual cooperation was the right choice of relations between the two countries.
“Prime Minister Modi’s recent positive remarks on China-India relations are appreciated,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in a press briefing in Beijing on Monday. “Let me stress that in the 2000 plus years history of interactions, the two countries have maintained friendly exchanges” and both the countries learned from each other contributing to civilisational achievements and human progress,” she said.
The statement follows Mr Modi’s interaction with Mr Fridman where he said normalcy has returned to the India-China border after his recent talks with President Xi Jinping to defuse tensions ignited by the 2020 clashes between the two armies in eastern Ladakh. The Prime Minister said his government was focused on ensuring that differences do not escalate into disputes.
In the podcast aired on Sunday evening, the Prime Minister had weighed in on the India-China relations lately and said differences between two neighbouring countries are natural but “our focus is to ensure that these differences don’t turn into disputes”. PM Modi had emphasised dialogue over discord in his remarks on the podcast.
“Our focus is to ensure that these differences don’t turn into disputes. That’s what we actively work toward. Instead of discord, we emphasise dialogue because only through dialogue can we build a stable, cooperative relationship that serves the best interests of both nations,” Mr Modi had said.
The China spokesperson said the successful meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia, in October provided strategic guidance for the improvement and development of bilateral ties.
In November last year, Indian and Chinese troops started patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh after a gap of over four years. Patrolling was stopped in these two areas in eastern Ladakh for about four and a half years after the two sides clashed in the Pangong Lake and Galwan regions in May-June 2020.
“It is true that there have been ongoing border disputes between us. And in 2020, the incidents along the border created significant tensions between our countries. However, after my recent meeting with President Xi, we have seen a return to normalcy at the border,” PM Modi said.
Both sides, said the China spokesperson, have earnestly followed through on the important common understandings, strengthened exchanges and achieved positive outcomes. As the two largest developing countries, China and India have shared the task of accelerating their development and revitalisation and understand and support each other’s successes, she said.
“Slowly but surely, trust, enthusiasm, and energy will return. But of course, it will take some time, since there’s been a five-year gap. Our cooperation isn’t just beneficial, it’s also essential for global stability and prosperity. And since the 21st century is Asia’s century, we want India and China to compete in a healthy and natural way. Competition is not a bad thing, but it should never turn into conflict,” PM Modi had said. The Prime Minister also stressed on dialogue over discord to build a “stable cooperative relationship” between the two nations.
“Our relationship should remain just as strong in the future. It should continue to grow. Of course, differences are natural. When two neighbouring countries exist, occasional disagreements are bound to happen. Even within a family, not everything is always perfect. But our focus is to ensure that these differences don’t turn into disputes. That’s what we actively work toward. Instead of discord, we emphasize dialogue, because only through dialogue can we build a stable cooperative relationship that serves the best interests of both nations,” he said.
This serves the fundamental interests of over 2.8 billion people, meets the common aspiration of regional countries, and follows the historical trend of the Global South growing stronger and conducive to world peace, she further added.
The two countries should be partners that contribute to each other’s success and a “cooperative pas de deux”, a ballet dance between dragon and elephant is the “only choice for both sides”, she said, reiterating the recent comments by Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the development of bilateral ties.
China stands ready to work with India to implement the important common understandings between the two leaders, take the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic relations as an opportunity and advance bilateral ties on the track of stable and sound development, she said.