'China no threat to India,' Beijing tells New Delhi

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Calling for “concrete policies” to stabilize bilateral relations, Beijing has conveyed to New Delhi that China was “no threat” to India.

“China and India pose no threat but offer development opportunities for each other," Wang Yi, China’s foreign affairs chief, told Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

The duo met in South Africa on Monday on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting, according to Chinese broadcaster CGTN.

Wang said China-India relations “affect their respective development and the world situation.”

Calling for enhancing strategic mutual trust, Wang said the two sides should “focus on consensus and cooperation, and promote bilateral ties back to a healthy and stable development path as soon as possible.”

China and India have remained locked in a standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between China and India in the Ladakh area of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region – since May 2020.

In June 2020, at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a border clash.

“China will never follow the same path as some countries do to seek hegemony and is ready to work with developing countries, including India, to promote multilateralism and the democratization of international relations,” he said.

“China believes that a multipolar world free of hegemony and characterized by equality and order will surely come,” he added.

According to a brief readout released by New Delhi, Doval told Wang that the situation along the LAC since 2020 had “eroded strategic trust and the public and political basis of the relationship.”

Doval emphasized the “importance of continuing efforts to fully resolve the situation and restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, so as to remove impediments to normalcy in bilateral relations.”