China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s positive remarks on China-India relations during a podcast interview and also noted that being partners in mutual success and achieving “Dragon-Elephant Dance” cooperation is the only correct choice for the two countries, Chinese state media reported on March 17.
Global Times reported that while addressing a media query on PM Modi’s recent remarks on the Lex Fridman podcast, Mao Ning stated that China is willing to work with India to fully implement the consensus reached by their leaders, take the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to advance exchanges and cooperation across various fields and levels and promote the healthy and stable development of China-India relations.
According to the report in the Global Times, Mao said that in the 2,000-year history of China-India interactions, friendly exchanges and mutual learning have been the mainstream, contributing significantly to world civilisation and human progress.
In October last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister Modi on the margins of the BRICS Summit held in Kazan, Russia.
During Sunday’s podcast with AI researcher Lex Fridman, PM Modi expressed optimism about India’s relationship with China, emphasizing the importance of learning from and understanding one another. Despite ongoing border disputes, PM Modi acknowledged the ancient cultural and civilisational ties between the two nations, noting that there’s no real history of conflict between them.
PM Modi also advocated for healthy competition between the two nations, emphasising that competition should never turn into conflict. Further, PM Modi acknowledged a return to normalcy at the border. The two nations are now working to restore conditions to how they were before 2020.
“It is true that there have been ongoing border disputes between us. And in 2020, the incidents along the border created significant tensions between our countries. However, after my recent meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping, we have seen a return to normalcy at the border. We are now working to restore conditions to how they were before 2020. Slowly but surely, trust, enthusiasm, and energy will return. But, of course, it will take some time since there’s been a five-year gap,” he said.
“Our relationship should remain just as strong in the future. It should continue to grow. Of course, differences are natural. When two neighbouring countries exist, occasional disagreements are bound to happen. Even within a family, not everything is always perfect. But our focus is to ensure that these differences don’t turn into disputes,” he said.
(With inputs from ANI)
