China lauds Modi's views on strong bilateral ties
China on Monday echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on strong Sino-India ties and said achieving a “dance between the dragon and the elephant” was the only viable option for both nations.
Acknowledging Modi's positive remarks on the India-China relations during a podcast with computer scientist Lex Fridman, Beijing said "cooperative pas de deux (ballet dance) was the only way forward”.
“Over the past 2,000 years, the two countries have maintained friendly exchanges, learning from each other and contributing to civilisational achievements and human progress. As the two largest developing countries, China and India have shared the task of accelerating each other’s development, revitalisation and successes,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a media briefing today. “This serves the fundamental interests of over 2.8 billion people, meets the common aspiration of regional countries and follows the historical trend of the global south growing stronger and conducive to world peace.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had on March 7 said that “being mutually supportive partners and achieving the dragon and elephant dance was the only correct choice for India and China”. In Chinese tradition, the elephant-dragon dance refers to a lively and magnificent scene.
Borrowing from Yi, Mao said the two nations should be collaborators, contributing to each other's success. She said the successful meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia's Kazan lent strategic guidance for improvement and development of bilateral ties.
“China is ready to work with India to implement important common understandings between the two leaders, take the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic relations as an opportunity and advance bilateral ties on the track of stable and sound development,” the Chinese official said.
PM Modi had on Sunday termed the India-China cooperation beneficial not only for the two nations, but equally for global stability and prosperity.
“Competition is natural, but there should not be conflict. China and India have always learnt from each other and have had no past history of conflict…. India wants ties with China to stay strong and steady. Differences and occasional disagreements are natural as in families. Our attempt is that the differences should not plummet into disputes. We stress dialogue over discord," PM Modi said, adding the situation along the LAC had normalised after his meeting with Jinping and that both sides were working to restore the pre-2020 status.
