NEW DELHI: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday said that India and China must create conditions to enable settlement of the boundary dispute while saying Beijing’s views of the ‘rights and wrong’ of last year were clear. “It is important that two sides manage disputes properly and expand and enhance cooperation to create enabling conditions for the settlement of the issue. The rights and wrongs of what happened in the border area last year are clear, so are the stakes involved.
It again proves that initiating confrontation will not solve the problem. Returning to peaceful negotiation is the right way forward. China’s position is very clear. We are committed to settling the boundary dispute through dialogue and consultation. At the same time, we are resolved to safeguard our sovereign rights and interests,” Wang said at the annual press meet of the National People’s Congress.
This is the first time that the Chinese foreign minister has commented on the situation along the Line of Actual Control after the disengagement process between Indian and Chinese troops was completed along the banks of Pangong Lake. Calling for both India and China to ‘solidify existing consensus and strengthen communications’, the Chinese foreign minister hoped that in the next year India will truly work with China to deliver on the understanding that both are not threats to each other, but opportunities for each other’s developments.
Wang said that India and China’s positions on many important issues are same or similar. “China and India are each other’s friends and partners , not threats or rivals. The two sides need to help each other succeed instead of undercutting each other. We should intensify cooperation instead of harbouring suspicions of each other,” he said. The Chinese foreign minister said the world expected India and China to safeguard common interests of developing countries and advance multipolarity in the world.