"Need To Jointly Oppose Zero-Sum Games": China Envoy To India

Chargé d'Affaires of the Chinese Embassy in India Ma Jia on Tuesday said that her country firmly sticks to the correct direction of China and India relations and emphasised that both countries should not be involved in undermining and doubting each other, said an official press release from the Chinese Embassy in India.

“We hope to firmly stick to the correct direction of China-India relations. China and India are eternal neighbours who need to accurately understand each other's strategic intentions, and to support and contribute to each other's success instead of undermining and doubting each other,” she said.

The official release added that the Chinese envoy while speaking at the 74th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, suggested that both China and India should keep the region away from geopolitical calculations.

She added, “We need to jointly oppose zero-sum games and keep our region away from geopolitical calculations. China and India have the ability and wisdom to find a way for friendly coexistence between neighboring major countries and jointly create the “Asian Century”.

Mentioning the prevailing geopolitical tensions between both countries, she added that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian PM Narendra Modi had a conversation during the BRICS summit and settled communication to establish a normal border situation.

The envoy added, “This year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi attended the SCO and BRICS Summits and had a conversation during the BRICS Summit. Premier Li Qiang attended the 18th G20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi. The two sides maintained communication through diplomatic and military channels to move the border situation from emergency response to normalized management and control.”

She further said, “Bilateral trade has performed strongly, and the trade volume reached 77.6 billion US dollars in the first seven months of this year. People-to-people exchanges between the two countries continue to increase.”

Hoping to normalise the differences between both countries, she recognised that the issues between both India and China are left over from history and will take time to resolve. 

Quoting the press release, she said, "There is an old Chinese saying, “The finer details fall into place when they align with the bigger picture”. We need to consolidate and develop the overall situation of friendly cooperation between our two countries and properly manage and resolve specific issues in this process, rather than allowing specific issues to define our bilateral relations, so as to promote more mature and stable relationship between our two countries."

Mia also hailed India's G20 presidency and said that China firmly stand on the side of developing countries. 

"The theme of the G20 Summit in New Delhi was “One Earth, One Family, One Future”, which is highly consistent with the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind. China and India are both members of the Global South. We need to stand firmly on the side of developing countries, uphold independence, work for unity and rejuvenation, advance economic globalization, oppose hegemonism and power politics, and fully support the improvement of the representation and voice of developing countries in the reform of the global governance system," said Chinese envoy.  

The release stated that she added, "We are ready to work with people from all walks of life who care about and support China-India relations, and promote the stability, improvement and development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and two peoples."

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