BEIJING: Indian Ambassador Vikram Doraiswami has stressed the importance of maintaining stable, predictable and amicable India-China ties, as Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit New Delhi to attend this week’s BRICS summit.
This will be Xi's first visit to India in nearly seven years. He is also expected to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit from September 12 to 13.
“As two of the world's most populous emerging economies, a stable, predictable and amicable relationship between India and China is not only in the interest of our 2.8 billion people, but is also a significant factor for peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and the wider world,” Doraiswami said in an article published in the state-run Global Times.
He said that both India and China have a stake in ensuring that global governance structures evolve to reflect the aspirations and interests of the developing world as Asia and the wider international landscape become increasingly multipolar.
This week’s BRICS summit in New Delhi will provide a valuable opportunity to deepen India-China cooperation, Doraiswami said in the article published by the newspaper in its web edition on Wednesday night.
“This shared interest finds concrete expression in platforms such as BRICS, which is an important voice for emerging economies on issues ranging from sustainable development and financial architecture to technology cooperation and people-centric growth,” he said.
“As we look toward the upcoming BRICS summit hosted by India, there is a valuable opportunity to deepen China-India cooperation on issues of mutual concern, from trade and connectivity to climate action, public health and the digital economy, while contributing constructively to a more balanced, inclusive and equitable global order,” he said.
Last year President Xi told Prime Minister Modi that China and India are cooperation partners, not rivals, and that the two countries are each other's development opportunities rather than threats, he said.
Xi and Modi met at the SCO summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin last year.
“This perspective is in keeping with the long history of mutually beneficial contact between our two civilisations. Peace and tranquillity in the China-India border areas provide an essential foundation for this partnership,” the envoy said.
“We must build on that foundation, guided by mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest, while ensuring that differences, which are natural between nations, do not become disputes. In doing so, our partnership can contribute to the well-being of our two peoples and to a more stable, peaceful and prosperous world,” he said.
In his article, Ambassador Doraiswami also highlighted the parallel journeys of India and China as free nations after attaining independence, and said both countries were already connected through the movement of ideas, trade and scholarship before the modern age.
Xi's visit to India is expected to be a high-profile diplomatic engagement with implications for the ongoing efforts to stabilise bilateral ties between the two Asian powers as well as for BRICS cooperation amid a volatile global situation, particularly the West Asia conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Xi last visited India in 2019 for an informal summit with Modi in Mamallapuram near Chennai.
The New Delhi BRICS summit will bring together the world's major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, with multilateral cooperation expected to remain at the core of the grouping's agenda.
(With inputs from PTI)