Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong on Friday said the Galwan Valley clashes last month was a "situation neither China nor India would like to see" and that special representatives of the China-India Boundary Question as well as Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had reached a positive consensus on the issue in their talks earlier this week.
At least 20 personnel of the Indian Army and an unspecified number of soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) were killed when both militaries were engaged in violent battles in eastern Ladakh on June 15.
India has consistently rejected China's claim over Galwan Valley even as both sides continue to hold diplomatic talks on the border row to thrash out modalities for further de-escalation of tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
"Currently, our front line troops are disengaging on the ground in accordance with the consensus reached by the Military Corp Commander talks," Sun said in video remarks on the current China-India relations.
"China and India should be partners, rather than rivals," said Sun, adding both countries have a history of friendly exchanges for more than 2,000 years. "Friendly cooperation has dominated most of the time. For both China and India, achieving development and revitalization is the top priority where we share long-term strategic interests."
"Since the 1990s, China and India have reached an important consensus that the two countries pose no threat to each other," he added, saying both President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Wuhan Informal Summit in 2018 had stressed that the two countries provide each other with development opportunities instead of posing threats.
"China and India need peace rather than confrontation," he said. "Cooperation benefits both while confrontation serves neither. As two major neighboring countries, it is natural that China and India may have some differences. We have been holding dialogues and negotiations to manage differences. We should always bear in mind the overall bilateral relations, put differences in an appropriate place and not allow differences to interfere with bilateral relations."
Saying the boundary question left over by history is sensitive and complicated, Sun said both nations need to find a fair and reasonable solution mutually acceptable through consultation and negotiation.
"The right and wrong of what recently happened at the Galwan Valley is very clear. China will firmly safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and ensure the peace and tranquility in the border areas," he added.
Sun said with the coronavirus pandemic a major challenge, both countries should strengthen cooperation on curbing it.
"As China and India boast huge market potentials and high economic complementarity, we are fully capable of achieving win-win results through cooperation. China has been India’s largest trading partner for many years in a row, with cumulative investment in India exceeding $8 billion," he said.
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