Wang praises Modi for reaching out to China
Print Edition
INDIA hailed talks with China yesterday as a good step towards stronger ties in the first high-level meeting of the Asian giants since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi during a two-day visit aimed at building relations with the right-wing Modi government which came to power last month on a pledge to revive the economy.
Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said that talks between Wang and Swaraj on economic and other issues were “productive and substantive.”
“All issues of significance were raised and discussed in a frank and cordial manner,” Akbaruddin told reporters.
“In our view this is a productive beginning between the new government of India and the Chinese government,” he said without giving details.
The talks focused on trade ties but also touched on a border dispute between the neighbors that has soured relations for decades.
Today, Wang is expected to meet Modi, who has extended olive branches to China and Pakistan since coming to office despite his hardline nationalist reputation.
Modi has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit later this year, an offer that Wang told India media had been accepted.
Wang told the Hindu newspaper he travelled to New Delhi as a special envoy of Xi to “cement our existing friendship and explore further cooperation.”
“China is ready to work with our Indian friends for an even brighter future of our strategic and cooperative partnership,” Wang said in an interview with the newspaper published yesterday.
WANG praised Modi’s government for its “sincerity and enthusiasm” in immediately reaching out to China and other countries, according to the interview.
“India was a cradle of splendid ancient civilization, and I am glad to see this country gaining new vigor and vitality,” Wang was quoted as saying. “The international community, impressed by the great opportunities in India, is full of confidence in the future of the country.”
Modi — who campaigned largely on promises of economic growth — surprised Indians by focusing his first week in office on foreign relations with India’s neighbors, including arch-rival Pakistan.
Wang, who arrived in India early yesterday, shook hands with Swaraj and waved to reporters outside government offices before heading inside.
China is India’s biggest trading partner with two-way commerce totalling close to US$70 billion. But India’s trade deficit with China has soared to over US$40 billion from just US$1 billion in 2001-02, Indian figures show.
Experts say Modi must bridge the deficit by seeking greater access to the Chinese market, with the two sides targeting annual bilateral trade of US$100 billion by 2015.
Akbaruddin said increasing Chinese investment in India was discussed, including setting up industrial parks.
Relations however are still dogged by mutual suspicion — a legacy of a brief, bloody border war in 1962.
Modi warned China to shed its “expansionist mindset” at an election rally earlier this year.
China hit back, saying it “never waged a war of aggression to occupy any inch of land of other countries.”
Relations between the two countries also took a hit in April last year when India accused Chinese troops of “intruding into its territory” in a remote region of the Himalayas, sparking a three-week stand-off that was only resolved when troops from both sides pulled back.
Wang acknowledged the border tensions, but said that the two countries have “much more strategic consensus than differences and cooperation is our top priority.”
“The boundary question is indeed a difficult one, but with strong will and resolve, we will eventually find a solution,” he told the Hindu.
“Even if we could not resolve it for the time being, we could at least manage it effectively, not allowing it to affect the normal development of our relations,” Wang said.
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