China India Photo: Xinhua

 

The rights and wrongs of the China-India border issue last year are very clear, and lessons should be drawn from the past, China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a phone call on Thursday with Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

China and India must cherish the hard-won situation, maintain the momentum of consultation, improve border control mechanisms, and advance the border negotiation process, to realize peace and tranquility along border areas, Wang said.

He said during the phone call that the front-line forces of the two sides have recently completed disengagement in the Pangong Lake area and the current situation has eased significantly.

India's policy toward China recently has undergone swings and regression, and the cooperation between the two countries has been affected and disrupted, which is not in the interests of both parties, Wang noted, adding that the experience of the past few decades has repeatedly indicated that highlighting differences will not help solve problems, but will erode the foundation of mutual trust.

China and India should follow the right path of mutual trust and cooperation instead of the path of suspicion, or retrogressive path, and properly handle border issues to prevent bilateral relations from falling into a negative cycle, Wang noted.

Border issues are not the whole of China-India relations and should be placed in an appropriate position in bilateral relations, Wang said. China and India, two emerging economies, need to move forward side-by-side instead of restraining each other, and develop cooperatively instead of building walls against each other.

Step-by-step, the two sides can accumulate conditions for further improving bilateral relations and advancing pragmatic cooperation, Wang noted.

The recent disengagement of the two militaries in the Pangong Lake area is an important result of the two sides earnestly implementing the consensus reached by the two foreign ministers in Moscow, Jaishankar said during the phone call.

India hopes to strengthen dialogue and consultation with China to achieve complete disengagement in other regions as soon as possible, push a sustained cool-off in the border situation, and maintain peace and tranquility in border areas.

The Indian side is willing to proceed from the long-term development of bilateral relations and the overall situation, implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two sides, and push bilateral relations back on track as soon as possible, he noted.

During the phone call, the two sides agreed to establish a communication hotline to exchange views in a timely manner.

Relations between China and India deteriorated since a deadly confrontation in Galwan Valley last year. The two sides began formulating a disengagement plan to withdraw troops and establish no-patrol zones in November 2020. On February 10, Chinese and Indian border troops on the southern and northern shores of Pangong Lake began their disengagement as planned.