China on Sunday called for closer Sino-Indian ties as a stepping stone to settle the boundary issue, unveiling Beijing’s perspective of resolving the frontier row as an incremental time-consuming exercise.
Addressing a press conference during the on-going annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi said that the two countries had so far managed to contain the dispute. “As for the India-China boundary question, it is the legacy of history. We have worked on it for many years and made some progress on the boundary negotiations. The dispute has been contained,” Mr. Wang said in response to a question.
However, the resolution of the boundary issue was an uphill task, requiring both sides to take measured, incremental steps. “At the moment the boundary negotiations are in the process of building up small, positive steps,” the foreign minister observed. He added: “It is like climbing a mountain. The going is tough, that is only because we are on the way up”.
With an early breakthrough not in sight, Mr. Wang advocated overall development of the China-India ties, as this would impart a positive momentum to the resolution of the border row. “This is one more reason why we should do more to strengthen China-India cooperation so that we can enable and facilitate the settlement of the diplomatic question.”
Diplomatic sources told The Hindu , despite the urgency of the resolution of the boundary issue, the Indian side is not allowing differences on the frontiers to impede the growing economic partnership between New Delhi and Beijing.
Mr. Wang said that Sino-Indian partnership was a strategic necessity to unveil the “Asian century”. “Deng Xiaoping once said that unless China and India are developed, there would be no Asian century,” he observed.
Mr. Wang stressed that a warm welcome awaits Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the Chinese government and people during his much anticipated visit to Beijing later this year. He said that the two countries needed to work together “for the revitalisation of two oriental civilizations and to bring prosperity to two emerging markets and enable co-existence of two large neighbours”.
