Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have said that the two countries are partners, not competitors. The two sides discussed ways to develop trade ties and deepen cooperation.
Modi visited China for the first time in seven years to attend a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. He assured Xi Jinping that India is ready to improve relations with China. The issue of reducing the $ 99.2 billion bilateral trade deficit was also discussed. Modi stressed the need to maintain peace and stability along the disputed border, recalling the 2020 clash that led to a five-year military confrontation.
“We are committed to the progress of our relations, which should be based on mutual respect, trust, and sensitivity,” Modi said during the meeting. His words were published in a video posted on the official X page. The prime minister added that an “atmosphere of peace and stability” has already been established on the disputed Himalayan border. According to him, cooperation is in the interests of the world’s two most populous countries, which together account for approximately 2.8 billion people.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, for his part, emphasized that China and India present development opportunities for each other, rather than threats. “We should not let the border issue determine the overall nature of China-India relations,” Xi said, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
According to him, bilateral relations can be “stable and far-reaching” if the sides perceive each other as partners, not competitors.
It should be noted that relations between the two countries were in a state of crisis as a result of a border clash in 2020. At that time, 20 Indian and 4 Chinese soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand combat, after which the Himalayan border was heavily militarized.
