After 18 months of China not having an Ambassador in India, senior diplomat Xu Feihong arrived in Delhi to assume office as the 17th Ambassador to India on Friday, Chinese government-run media CGTN reported.
Mr. Xu said that his priority is to work to restore exchanges and cooperation in various fields and create favourable conditions for a sound and steady India-China relationship.
“President Xi [Jinping] and Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi have agreed on the important assessment that China and India are cooperation partners and not competitors. And reached an important common understanding that our two countries are each other’s development opportunities and not threats. This should serve as the fundamental guidelines for the growth of bilateral relations,” he told CGTN.
“As President Xi Jinping said, if China and India speak with one voice, the whole world will listen. If both countries join hands, the whole world will pay attention,” he added. Mr. Xu will succeed Sun Weidong, who completed his tenure as Ambassador to India in October 2022.
Ties between the two countries have been strained since tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following China’s multiple transgressions starting in April 2020 and violent clashes in Galwan in June 2020, which resulted in casualties on both sides.
Mr. Xu said that he looks forward and trusts that he will have the support and assistance of the Indian government and friends from all sectors. “Both India and China are each other’s important neighbours and the biggest emerging markets and developing countries of the world. I will follow the important consensus between our leaders and reach out to friends from all sectors of India,” he said.
He said that the world is facing multiple global challenges such as climate change, food and energy prices, weak economic recovery and so on, and closer communication and coordination on global and regional affairs will not only bring opportunities to both the countries and the world but also add stability and positivity to international relations. “It will have an important positive impact on the development of a fair and reasonable international order,” he said.
Mr. Xu’s appointment comes against the backdrop of both India and China last month stating that there should be better relations between the countries.
In April, in an interview with U.S. magazine Newsweek, Mr. Modi broke his silence on ties with China and the LAC stand-off since April 2020, calling for the two sides to “urgently address the prolonged situation on our borders so that the abnormality in our bilateral interactions can be put behind us”. “I hope and believe that through positive and constructive bilateral engagement at the diplomatic and military levels, we will be able to restore and sustain peace and tranquility in our borders,” Mr. Modi had said.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s comments, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson of China, Mao Ning had said that sound and stable China-India relations serve the interests of both countries and the boundary question does not represent the entirety of China-India relations, and it should be placed appropriately in bilateral relations and managed properly.
(The correspondent is in China at the invitation of the China Public Diplomacy Association)
