Bilateral ties between India and China can’t afford the strain of another Doklam incident like before, Chinese envoy to India Luo Zhaohui said on Monday, insisting the significance of the need to find a “mutually acceptable solution” on the boundary issue through a meeting of Special Representatives.
Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a 7-day stand-off at the Doklam tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China between June to August last year.
Mr. Luo said “some Indian friends” had suggested trilateral cooperation comprising India, China and Pakistan under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which was a “very constructive” idea.
“Security cooperation is one of the three pillars of the SCO. Some Indian friends suggested that China, India and Pakistan may have some kind of trilateral cooperation under the SCO,” he said in the keynote address on ‘Beyond Wuhan: How Far and Fast can China-India Relations Go’ at an event organised by the Chinese Embassy in Delhi.
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Responding to a question on whether a trilateral between the Asian neighbours will help in solving the India-Pakistan dispute, he said he personally considered it “a good and constructive idea”.
“Maybe not now, but in the future, that is a great idea. It will help to resolve bilateral issues and help to maintain peace and tranquillity,” he said.
It was quite natural to have differences with neighbours but they needed to be controlled and managed through cooperation. “We need to narrow differences through expanding cooperation. However, it does not mean that differences would be ignored. The boundary question between our two countries was left over by history. We need to build on convergence to find a mutually acceptable solution through the Special Representatives Meeting while adopting confidence-building measures to maintain the peace and tranquillity along the border,” he said. “We cannot stand another Doklam (sic).”
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