Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday that Beijing and New Delhi should work towards mutual trust and “win-win” cooperation, after talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, state news agency Xinhua reported.
China and India should “adhere to the direction of good-neighbourliness and friendship” and “find a way for mutual respect and trust, peaceful coexistence, common development and win-win cooperation”, Wang said.
In today’s meeting, India’s foreign minister told his Chinese counterpart that both countries must resolve friction along their border, pull back troops and avoid “restrictive trade measures” to normalise their relationship, Reuters reported.
“Good progress” made by the countries in the past nine months for normalisation of relations is a result of the resolution of friction along their border, Jaishankar told Wang.
“It is now incumbent on us to address other aspects related to the border, including de-escalation,” Jaishankar said, adding that it was also critical that restrictive trade measures and roadblocks be avoided to foster mutually beneficial cooperation.
Jaishankar, who is in China to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng earlier in the day, Xinhua reported.
India and China should steadily advance practical cooperation and respect each other’s concerns, Han told Jaishankar, the report said.
The two foreign ministers met in Beijing on Monday as the two rivals seek to repair ties following a 2020 clash on their border.
The world’s two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, and their 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) frontier has been a perennial source of tension.
The 2020 clash between their troops led to a four-year military standoff they agreed in October on patrols in disputed areas.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping met for the first time in five years later that month, agreeing to work on improving relations.
New Delhi is concerned over Beijing’s increasing presence in the Indian Ocean, seeing the region as firmly within its sphere of influence.
