International
After India’s outreach, China says ‘Dragon and elephant should not fight but dance together’
Beijing: After asking senior leaders and govt functionaries to stay away from events organized by the Tibetan Government in exile, China has responded by saying that the ‘Dragon and the Elephant should not fight but dance together’, reported the Indian Express.
China has also asked New Delhi to shed ‘mental inhibitions’ and mutual suspicion’ in order to improve bilateral ties.
ALSO READ: Tibet is not seeking independence, we want to stay with China, want more development: Dalai Lama
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a press conference said, “The Chinese dragon and the Indian elephant must not fight each other but dance with each other. If China and India are united, one plus one will not equal two but 11.”
The statement of the Foreign Minister, who was a hard-line voice during the Doklam standoff, is being seen as an acknowledgment of the outreach by India.
Even during Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which China considers as a ‘disputed territory’, Wang Yi didn’t attend the Russia-India-China trilateral meet which took place in India.
ALSO READ: China voices firm opposition over Modi’s visit to ‘disputed’ Arunachal Pradesh
However on Thursday, Wang Yi said that the relationship between India and China ‘continues to grow’, and as largest developing countries, they must support each other.
“Each with a population of more than one billion, China and India must do everything to empathise and support each other and to avoid mutual suspicion and attrition,” Wang said.
His comments follow his meeting, on February 23, with Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, who visited China to mend fences and reset the India-China relationship after a rocky 2017.
Wang also spoke about the need for the two countries to trust each other. “Mutual trust is the most precious commodity in China-India relations. With political trust, not even the Himalayas can stop us from friendly exchanges. Without it, not even levelled land can bring us together,” he said.
