Caravan News
NEW DELHI — In the wake of strained relation between two nuclear-armed countries, India and Pakistan, China wants both countries should have good relations and join hands for promoting peace and stability in the region, said Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong.
After the Pulwama terror attack in February that killed 40 CRPF personnel, the relations between the two neighbouring countries further deteriorated when Pakistan objected to the removal of special status on Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370. Islamabad even downgraded the diplomatic relations with New Delhi.
“Both China and India are major countries with important influence in the region. The two leaders had in-depth communication on the regional situation. China stressed that it sincerely look forward to good relations between China and India, China and Pakistan as well as India and Pakistan. We hope to see countries in the region join hands in promoting regional peace and stability and realising development and prosperity,” said the Chinese envoy in New Delhi, ANI reported.
Chinese envoy to India also said that during the recently concluded informal talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China also proposed expanding the scope of dialogue in order to extend cooperation in the region.
“The Chinese side also put forward its proposition on promoting cooperation under the “China-India+” mechanism, that is to extend the cooperation model to other countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa on the basis of the “China-India + Afghanistan” cooperation,” the official said, according to the report.
He also said that closer cooperation between China and India will have an important and positive impact on the building of a fair and equitable international order.
“China proposes that China and India play a leading role in regional inter-connectivity and work to build a more open connectivity network”, Weidong added.
The envoy further said that during the recently concluded informal talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, China also proposed expanding the scope of dialogue in order to extend cooperation in the region.
Earlier in an interview to PTI, the Chinese envoy had said both India and China should go beyond the model of “management of differences” and work towards actively shaping bilateral relations through accumulation of positive energy and forging greater cooperation for common development.
However, China’s pitch to revive India-Pakistan relations is unlikely to yield any outcomes in the present scenario as India has consistently maintained that talks and terror cannot go hand in hand.
Interestingly, Pakistan has announced that it is going to host SAARC summit in which India will also be invited as a member country. However, earlier also Pakistan’s efforts to draw consensus on full participation in the South Asian regional forum failed to yield results.
(With inputs from ANI)
