Need to manage differences: New Chinese envoy to India

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, June 1

Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong on Saturday said there is a need to bring China-India relations forward along the “right track, manage differences” and jointly explore ways to “get along well” with each other.

The Ambassador, who is Beijing’s first envoy to be posted in New Delhi after a gap of 18 months, had presented his credentials to President Droupadi Murmu on Friday evening. He had arrived in India on May 14.

The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi posted a statement quoting Xu as saying that there is a need to “carry forward the spirit of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, enhance political mutual trust, manage differences properly and advance mutual beneficial cooperation”.

It spoke about the India-China relations saying these needed to be taken “forward along the right track, and to jointly explore the way for major neighbouring countries to get along well with each other”.

“A sound and stable China-India relationship is in the common interests of both sides and will contribute to peace and development of the region and the world,” it added.

The Chinese side is ready to work with the Indian side to act in accordance with the characterisation and common understandings of this relationship reached by leaders of the two countries, the statement said.

Ambassador Xu conveyed the cordial greetings of President Xi Jinping to President Murmu, and said China and India are both ancient civilisations with a long history, major developing countries and emerging economies, and are currently at a critical stage of national development and rejuvenation.