BEIJING, 25 Mar: China and India should put their differences on the border issue at a “proper position” in bilateral relations and stick to the “right direction” of bilateral ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.
Yi, who held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and national security adviser Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Friday, proposed a three-point approach to achieve the development of bilateral relations.
“First, both sides should view bilateral relations with a long-term vision. Second, they should see each other’s development with a win-win mentality. Third, both countries should take part in the multilateral process with a cooperative posture,” state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The Chinese minister said that the two countries “should put their differences at a proper position in their bilateral relations and stick to the right direction of the China-India ties,” Xinhua reported.
Yi, who holds the rank of a state councillor – a high ranking position in the executive organ of the Chinese government – is also the special representative of China for India-China border talks along with national security adviser Doval.
This is the first visit by a high ranking Chinese official since the Ladakh standoff started in May 2020, leading to the breakdown of the relations between the two countries.
Yi said that Beijing is willing to explore “China-India plus” cooperation in South Asia to forge a cooperation model with a healthy interaction, so as to achieve mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation at a higher level and in a wider range, the agency reported.
“China does not pursue the so-called ‘unipolar Asia’ and respects India’s traditional role in the region,” Yi said in New Delhi, where he arrived on an unannounced visit from Kabul on Thursday night.
In the first major diplomatic engagement between India and China in nearly two years, Yi and Jaishankar on Friday held extensive talks covering the eastern Ladakh row and the geopolitical turmoil triggered by the crisis in Ukraine, official sources in New Delhi said.
Ahead of talks with Jaishankar, Yi met Doval and held extensive talks on the border row, the sources said.
India and China have been holding high-level military talks to resolve the face-off in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh. Both sides withdrew troops already from some of the friction points following the talks.
On 11 March, India and China held the 15th round of high-level military dialogue to resolve the pending issues in the eastern Ladakh region. However, there was no forward movement in the talks which were aimed at resolving the remaining issues. (PTI)
