Beijing: India and China seems to have agreed to actively avoid the possibility of military confrontation at the recent ‘informal summit’ between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said the two leaders had decided to ensure any face-offs on the border does not derails bilateral ties between the two Asian giants, as had happened during and after the Doklam standoff.
At a daily press briefing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson was asked to comment on media reports that a hotline would be set up between the military leadership of the two countries. “The two militaries will enhance confidence building measures and border defense exchanges and cooperation, which will contribute to increasing mutual trust, managing the relevant issues in a more mature and wise way, and maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” said spokesperson Hua Chunying.
“The two sides agreed to focus on the long-term picture, position the border issues at an appropriate place in the framework of bilateral ties, engage in communications and dialogues to explore a settlement acceptable to all, and properly manage the issues and prevent them from worsening until a settlement is reached,” she added.
Addressing other questions on the Modi-Xi summit and its outcomes, she laid emphasis on the line that the two leaders had discussed the global scenario, and the role that the India-China relationship in that context, again underscoring China’s concerns with its rising global engagements.
“China would like to work with India to step up implementation of the important consensus reached between the two leaders and take this meeting as an opportunity to open up new prospects for the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides,” Hua said.
“They had a thorough exchange of views and reached important consensus on the international landscape, China-India relations and bilateral cooperation in various fields. The two leaders further clarified the trend of the times and the historic positioning of China and India,” she added.
The Chinese government and government-run media had repeatedly harped on how the Modi-Xi summit could herald the ‘Asian century’. China has long spoken of the ‘Asian century’ of being a Chinese one, to counteract the colonial subjugation of the ‘Century of Humiliation’.
However, the Chinese project has run into soft issues of trust at a number of places across the globe. Beijing has since found it more suitable to include the rising India to its idea of an ‘Asian century’.
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