China’s growth, India’s opportunity: Envoy
NEW DELHI: A senior Chinese leader on Monday assured India that China’s growth was not a threat but an opportunity for India and the same held true with regard to India’s rise.
Senior member of Communist Party of China, Zhou Yongkang, said the two countries should work around their differences and not let them come in the way of strengthening of relations in other sectors, even calling for bilateral ties to be treated from the strategic highpoint.
He said, “In light of such a situation, it is all the more necessary for China and India to handle our relationship from a strategic height and long-term perspective… for controversial issues and disagreements in exchanges, we should deal with them properly on the basis of mutual respect, consulation on an equal basis and the principle of mutual understanding and accommodation, so as not to let the improper handling of specific issues affect the overall relations.”
Foreign minister S M Krishna said divergence of views between the two countries was exaggerated and announced that the hotline between the prime ministers would be active soon. He said India and China should address each other’s concerns and sensitivities.
Yongkang, who suggested an overall relationship through different sectors while saying that having friendly relations with India was a “strategic decision” of China, reached out to the political spectrum wary of Chinese assertiveness in recent years.
Zhou met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, BJP president Nitin Gadkari and Left leaders, where developing mutual trust was stressed.
The senior leader came as the head of a Chinese delegation to address a seminar on Sino-India relations organized jointly by the Communist Party of China and the Congress.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Chinas-growth-Indias-opportunity-Envoy/articleshow/6856357.cms