China on Thursday cautiously welcomed India’s invitation to heads of the ASEAN, and offered its “constructive” participation for promoting overall development of the region.
Rejecting a zero-sum approach, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said in response to a question on India’s invitation to the 10 ASEAN leaders, “China is open to all countries developing friendly relations.”
She added, “So, we are okay with India developing friendly and cooperative relations with ASEAN countries.”
Rejecting the notion that the New Delhi meeting, commemorating 25 years of India-ASEAN ties, was meant to send a message to China of New Delhi’s growing political clout in Beijing’s backyard, Ms. Hua said: “We hope all countries can work together for peace, stability, and development of the region. We can all play a constructive role in the regard.”
China’s ties with the ASEAN have been on the upswing. Trade between them is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2020. India's trade with ASEAN in 2016-17 stood at $ 70 billion, Xinhua reported.
Slams a section of Indian media
Ms. Hua, however, slammed a section of the Indian media for imparting an anti-China slant in reporting the New Delhi-ASEAN event.
“In recent days some Indian media seems to have cultivated a habit. They will link their domestic affairs with China. I don’t know what the India leadership think[s] of that. But I want to say that on the Indian side, Indian media is not very confident and they don’t trust us.”
Ms. Hua’s response to India’s invitation to the ASEAN leaders follows the Chinese foreign ministry’s open welcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the Davos World Economic Forum on Tuesday.
“I noticed that Prime Minister Modi made some remarks on protectionism and his remarks showed that globalisation is the trend of the times and serves the interests of all the countries including developing countries and the fight against protectionism and promoting globalisation,” she said on Wednesday.
“China and India share a lot of common interests. China would like to enhance coordination and cooperation with all countries, including India, to steer the economic globalisation towards benefiting world economic growth and well-being of all countries,” she observed.
