Xi Says China, India Should Strengthen Ties In 'Dragon-Elephant Tango'
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said both countries are ancient civilisations, major developing countries and important members of the Global South and both are in a crucial stage of modernisation
As India and China work together to strengthen bilateral ties that hit all-time low after 2020 Ladakh clash, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday told his Indian counterpart Droupadi Murmu that their relationship should take the form of a “Dragon-Elephant tango" – a dance between their emblematic animals.
The Chinese and Indian presidents exchanged congratulatory messages on Tuesday, the 75th anniversary of the start of their diplomatic ties.
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Xi said the neighbours should find ways to coexist peacefully and that he was ready to deepen communication and coordination in major international affairs, and jointly safeguard peace in border areas.
Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong informed that Premier Li Qiang exchanged congratulatory messages with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Li said that China stands ready to work with India, taking the 75th anniversary of China-India diplomat relations as an opportunity, continue to enhance strategic mutual trust, promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields, properly handle the boundary question, advance China-India relations on the track of sound and stable development, so as to bring more benefits to the two peoples.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said both countries are ancient civilisations, major developing countries and important members of the Global South and both are in a crucial stage of modernisation.
The historical course of our bilateral relations shows that being partners that contributed to each other’s success and the cooperative dance of ‘the dragon and the elephant’ is the right choice for both sides, Guo said.
Under the strategic guidance of the leaders of our two countries, China stands ready to work with India to view and handle bilateral relations with a strategic and long-term perspective and take this occasion as an opportunity to enhance strategic mutual trust and step up exchanges and cooperation in various fields, Guo said.
He was referring to how Modi and Xi provided strategic guidance for the development of bilateral relations at their meeting at Kazan in Russia on the sidelines of the BRICS summit last year.
The two sides are implementing the consensus of the two leaders and are promoting cooperation and achieving fruitful outcomes.
After last year’s meeting between Modi and Xi, both countries held a series of high level meetings, including that of the Special Representatives (SRs) of the boundary mechanism followed by the visit of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to Beijing for talks to normalise relations after the four-year freeze in relations due to the Ladakh standoff.
This year, on March 25, India and China held a fresh edition of diplomatic talks in Beijing focusing on ensuring effective border management and early resumption of cross-border cooperation and exchanges, including on trans-border rivers and resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
In the meeting of WMCC (Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination) on China-India Border Affairs, the two sides explored various measures and proposals to give effect to the decisions taken during talks between NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Special Representatives (SR) dialogue in December.
On the following day, Gourangalal Das, the joint secretary in the MEA’s East Asia division, and Liu Jinsong, the director general at the Chinese foreign ministry’s department of Asian Affairs met in Beijing during which they explored ways to rebuild ties and agreed to initiate efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges, including arrangements for resumption of direct flights and resume Kailash Manasarovar Yatra this year.
In the meeting, the two sides also discussed resumption of dialogue mechanisms in a “step-by-step" manner to utilise them to address each other’s priority areas of interest and concern and move the relations to a “more stable and predictable path", Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said in a press release.
(With inputs from PTI, Reuters)
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