External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's visit to China despite opposition from several quarters in India, reflects the stability of bilateral relations and the importance New Delhi attaches to its ties with Beijing, an influential official daily here has said.
"Since the China-Indian border confrontation, the Indian opposition parties, military, and media have pressured the government to cancel the foreign minister's plan to visit China," the ruling Communist Party-run Peoples Daily Online said in an article titled "China-India have great wisdom to handle sensitive issues".
"However, Khurshid's visit to China indicates that the development of China-India relations has been quite stable and India attaches great importance to ties with China," the article said.
Khurshid concluded his two-day visit last night after extensive talks with China's new Premier Li Keqiang, State Councillor and Special Representative for India-China boundary talks Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi regarding the recent border stand-off at Depsang valley and Li's visit to New Delhi later this month.
In its lengthy commentary, the PD Online said, "Sino-India ties have long been complex and sensitive due to some historical issues such as border issue, Tibet and divergence on cross-border water resources."
"In recent years, China and India have risen simultaneously as emerging powers. Western media hypes "the competition between the dragon and the elephant", trying to provoke China-India relations. So how to view and deal with the bilateral ties is a major issue facing both sides," it said.
"The good news is that over the past half century, China and India have learnt from the lessons of history, made efforts to promote mutual trust on politics and security and effectively controlled differences so as to promote the steady development of bilateral relations," it said.
