India, China have to be patient, realistic: Pranab

Sat, Jun 7 01:00 AM

BOTH INDIA and China need to be 'patient and realistic' in resolving their differences, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the Peking University on Friday. Mukherjee, in Beijing on his first visit as external affairs minister for a series of talks on bilateral issues, used the platform to stress that both India and China need a peaceful external environment and can together evolve a new global order and 'security architecture' for Asia and beyond.

"Both our countries are mature enough to realise and address the difficult issues in our relationship," said Mukherjee, to an audience of diplomats, Chinese Hindi professors, students and Beijing's Indian diaspora. "We will have to be patient and realistic.

While we may have our differences, we will not let them become obstacles to the broadening and deepening of our relationship." The latest tension between the two nations is over China's recent claim on a tip of Sikkim.

"Our boundary is peaceful and we are determined to keep it so," Mukherjee stressed. "We seek a peaceful periphery within which to concentrate on the transformation and development of India.

" Speaking a few hours before his meeting with China's vice-president Xi Jinping, Mukherjee pitched the idea for both nations to evolve an open and inclusive 'security architecture' for peace and stability in Asia and beyond. "Both our countries require a peaceful external environment," he said.

Saying that both nations have a stake in how globalisation shapes the world, Mukherjee pointed out that India and China should work together to 'restructure and democratise' global institutions like the United Nations and World Bank so they are more attuned to current realities. "Global governance structures, be they the UN, or the IMF and World Bank, are still based on a world order that is a 60-year-old relic from the middle of the last century," he said.

Mukherjee's counterpart Yang Jiechi said this week that the China-India relationship is at a historic 'best period of development,' and faces 'important strategic opportunities.'.

RECOMMEND THIS STORY