Sino-India ties need special care
Ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit, China said its relations with
India were ‘very fragile’ and needed special care and guidance from the
government to the public to avoid a war of words.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao with Chinese Ambassador in India
Zhang Yan at a meeting organized by FICCI, in New Delhi on
Monday. Picture by V V Krishnan |
“China-India relations are very fragile and very easy to be damaged
and very difficult to repair. Therefore, they need special care in the
information age,” Chinese envoy to India Zhang Yan said at a conference
here.
Observing that public perception was vital to the development of
relations, he said efforts should be made on both sides to create an
objective and friendly environment based on mutual trust to ensure that
there is no wrong perception of each other.
“To achieve this, Government should provide guidance to the public to
avoid a war of words,” Zhang said at the conference on India-China
relations organized by FICCI.
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who was present at the conference,
sought to assuage the feelings of the Chinese envoy, by telling him that
India has a ‘very commonsensical’ and ‘very rational’ approach to China.
But at the same time, she highlighted the ‘vibrant and noisy nature’
of democracy to which the Chinese were exposed in India.
“Often, our Chinese friends speak of a certain gulf in appreciation
of each country vis-a-vis the other, especially when it comes to
opinions of that are expressed in the media of the two countries,” Rao
said.
“Our Chinese friends are increasingly exposed to the vibrant, I would
say, noisy nature of our democracy. The fact that many schools of
thought contend, many opinions are expressed which are often at
divergence with each other. But I would urge them to understand that
there is a certain very commonsensical, very rational approach that we
in India have to China,” she said.
“We see you as our largest neighbour, we regard in a real sense and
an absolute sense the importance of building bridges with China,
understanding China better, creating more of a mutually beneficial
relationship between the two countries,” Rao said.
The Foreign Secretary said the betterment of relations with China was
of great importance not only to the Indian leadership but also for the
business and for the industry of both the countries.
The Hindu |