China congratulates PM Modi; says both countries should look to the future

Beijing: China on Wednesday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the victory of the BJP-led NDA coalition in the general elections and said both countries should “look to the future” to advance bilateral relations, frozen since the Galwan incident four years ago, on a “healthy and stable track.”

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 of the 543 seats and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is comfortably above the majority 272 mark as per the result announced on Tuesday.

Relations between the two countries hit a low except for trade ever since the eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong Tso (lake) area near Galwan.

“We noted the results of India’s general election and extend congratulations on the victory of the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Democratic Alliance,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here.

“A healthy and stable China-India relationship is in the interest of both the countries, and conducive to the peace and development in this region and beyond,” Mao said while responding to a question by the official media seeking China’s comment on Modi’s win.

“China stands ready to work with India to act in the fundamental interests of the two countries and the two peoples, bear in mind the overall interest of our ties, look to the future and advance bilateral relations on a healthy and stable track,” she said.

Asked whether China will advance any new initiatives to revive the bilateral ties deadlocked since May 2020 over the Eastern Ladakh military standoff, Mao said China’s consistent and clear stand is that a healthy and stable China-India relationship is in the interest of both countries.

“We also hope that the two countries will act in the fundamental interests of the two peoples, work in the same direction and work for a healthy and stable China-India relationship,” she said.

Since the 2020 clashes, the two sides have so far held 21 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff.

According to the Chinese military, the two sides so far agreed to disengage from four points, namely the Galwan Valley, the Pangong Lake, Hot Springs, and Jianan Daban (Gogra) in eastern Ladakh.

India is pressing the People's Liberation Army to disengage from the Depsang and Demchok areas, maintaining that there cannot be restoration of normalcy in its relations with China as long as the state of the borders remains abnormal.

For its part, China continues to maintain that the boundary question does not “represent the entirety of China-India relations, and it should be placed appropriately in bilateral relations and managed properly.”

Once the Modi government begins its third term, attention is expected to turn to holding the 22nd round of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the deadlock over the disengagement in the Depsang and Demchok areas to revive the relations.

Ahead of India’s parliament elections, China last month appointed senior diplomat Xu Feihong as its new Ambassador to New Delhi after 18 months of delay.

Before heading to India to take over his new assignment Xu 60, said China is ready to work with India to find mutually acceptable solutions to “specific issues.”

“China is ready to work with India to accommodate each other's concerns, find a mutually acceptable solution to specific issues through dialogue at an early date, and turn the page as soon as possible,” Xu told PTI and China’s state-run CGTN in an interview.

In April this year Prime Minister Modi in an interview with Newsweek said that for India, the relationship with China is important and significant.

“It is my belief that we need to urgently address the prolonged situation on our borders so that the abnormality in our bilateral interactions can be put behind us. Stable and peaceful relations between India and China are important for not just our two countries but the entire region and world," he said.