China: Shifting its position from “managing” and shelving border issue with India..?
BEIJING: Both Chinese and Indian sides agreed that an informal meeting will provide a good atmosphere for leaders of the two countries to hold in-depth talks on issues of common concern, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.
China on Tuesday said that the upcoming summit between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Wuhan was a trust-building exercise, which would gradually help resolve the border row, and enable the two countries to jointly address major global problems.
Analysts say that China may be gradually shifting its position from “managing” and shelving the border issue, to a fledgling stance of resolving the China-India border dispute. Such a position would align well with Prime Minister Modi’s approach of seeking a final resolution of the boundary dispute.
“This time the two sides have decided to hold the informal summit between the two leaders. This is because both our countries attach great importance to each other on external strategy and not because of boundary question that still remains unresolved, and we need talk about it during the informal summit,” Chinese vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said in response to a question during a media briefing.
Spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine news briefing when asked why the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from April 27 to 28 in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, will be an informal one.
Lu said that Xi and Modi have maintained frequent interactions in various forms in recent years on both bilateral and multilateral occasions, including Xi’s visit to India in 2014 and Modi’s visit to China in 2015, as well as the BRICS, G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summits.
The important census reached between the two leaders have provided strong guidance to the development of bilateral relations, Lu said, adding they have also established a good working relationship and close personal friendship.
As leaders of the two biggest developing countries, Xi and Modi both feel it necessary to hold in-depth talks on overall, long-term, and strategic issues regarding China-India relations and international affairs, Lu said.
“We believe that the two leaders will achieve important new consensus and guide the healthy and steady development of bilateral relations,” Lu said. (With Agency Inputs ).
