Despite Xi’s decision not to attend G20 in India, Beijing said that China-India relations had been stable on the whole and the two sides had maintained dialogue and communication at various levels
Beijing, Sept 6: Claiming that China supports India’s G20 presidency, Beijing said Tuesday that China-India relations had been stable on the whole and the two sides had maintained dialogue and communication at various levels. This comes days after Beijing provoked India and five other countries with its newly-released standard map.
“The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. China always attaches high importance to and actively participates in relevant activities. We support India in hosting this year’s summit and stand ready to work with all parties to make the G20 summit a success,” said Mao Ning, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson.
China had announced Monday that in place of Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang was going to attend the G20 summit to be held in New Delhi.
This also comes days after China released a map, controversially showing lands belonging to India and areas of countries such as Bhutan, Malaysia and Vietnam within its territory.
Asked if President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the G20 summit in Delhi reflected tensions between India and China, the Chinese foreign ministry said that “the continued improvement and growth of China-India relations serves the common interests of the two countries and two peoples”.
“We stand ready to work with India to further improve and advance bilateral relations,” said a spokesperson.
India and China is continuously witnessing strained relations since the standoff in eastern Ladakh along Line. Without mentioning the dispute, or the reason for Xi’s decision not to attend, the spokesperson said, “At present, China-India relations remain generally stable, and dialogue and communication have been maintained at all levels.”
“We are willing to work with the Indian side to promote greater and continuous development of China-India relations.”
