New Delhi: China on Wednesday acknowledged the congratulatory message sent by President Droupadi Murmu to her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and asserted that China is willing to work with India to advance bilateral relations on a healthy and stable track.
Sharing President Murmu's congratulatory note on platform X, Xu said, "China is willing to work with the Indian side to advance bilateral relations on a healthy and stable track, in accordance with the principle of mutual respect, mutual understanding, mutual trust, mutual accommodation and mutual accomplishment."
On September 27, in her message, President Murmu emphasised the significance of fostering peaceful and stable relations, stating, "As two large neighbours with many common developmental challenges and shared regional interests, it is important that we work towards peaceful and stable relations between our two countries." In her communication, President Murmu expressed a desire to enhance bilateral cooperation, realise a mutually beneficial relationship.
'India-China tensions to continue if...': Jaishankar
On October 1 (Tuesday), External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asserted that China had violated border agreements and that continued tensions between the two would cast a natural shadow over the rest of this relationship. "In terms of our own relationship with China, I think it's a long story. But the short version is that we had agreements on how to keep the border peaceful and tranquil. Those agreements were violated by China," he said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.
"Because we have forward deployments of our militaries, those are resulting in tensions. Until those forward deployments are addressed, the tensions will continue. If the tensions continue, it casts a natural shadow over the rest of the relationship. So, our relationship hasn't been great for the last four years,” he added.
The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a standoff in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks. India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas. The two sides have so far held 21 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff.
Earlier, Indian Army Chief Upendra Dwivedi said the situation with China is "stable". However, he added the situation is not "normal" and dubbed it "sensitive". "As far as China is concerned, it has been intriguing our minds for quite some time. With China, you have to compete, cooperate, coexist, confront, and contest... So what's the situation today? It's stable, but it's not normal and it's sensitive," he said at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue.
(with agency input)
