50 years after war, China says India a partner not rival

K J M Varma

Asserting that India is its "partner instead of a rival", China on Wednesday said the world has undergone deep and profound changes since the 1962 China-India war and voiced readiness to work with New Delhi to boost trust and deepen their "strategic cooperative partnership".

Commenting for the first time on the 50th anniversary of the India-China war and special commemorative ceremony held in New Delhi to honour the martyred soldiers, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China has taken note of the event and the commentaries in Indian media in this regard.

"The current world has undergone deep and profound changes. As the two most populous developing countries and emerging economies both China and India face important opportunities of development," he said, answering a question on the commemorative ceremony and a host of commentaries that appeared in the Indian media.

"The two countries are cooperation partners instead of rivals. Their common ground far outweighs disputes and common interests outnumber conflicts," he said, referring to the progress made by them in improving bilateral relations in the recent years.

Just as the leaders of the two countries have pointed out many times, the world has enough space for common development of China and India in the fields for them to engage in cooperation, the spokesman said.

"China is ready to work with India in the spirit of looking forward to boost trust, enhance communication, expand cooperation and deepen China-India strategic cooperative partnership for the benefit of both the countries and both peoples," the spokesman said.

In many ways, Hong's remarks are first such official reference to the 50th anniversary of the war as there was hardly any mention of it here other than two articles that appeared in the state-run media.

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