Terming India's relationship with China a "mixed picture", Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar today said bilateral ties faced "some challenges" in the recent past, including when it blocked New Delhi's NSG membership bid and UN sanctions against Pakistani terrorist Masood Azhar.
Addressing reporters, Jaishankar also maintained that India has been largely able to address two big "constraints" - opportunities for China to invest in India and easier travel regime for Chinese nationals.
The Foreign Secretary, who was briefing the media on India's relationship with neighbours as well as with other countries, said ties with China presented a "mixed picture".
"We have faced some challenges in the relationship recently. During the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, we revisited some of these issues," he said.
A well known terrorist, who has admitted to having committed crimes against India, and his being sanctioned by the UN is "not a small issue", Jaishankar said in an obvious reference to China blocking sanctions against Azhar, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba and alleged 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind.
He also made a veiled reference to China scuttling India's NSG bid, saying New Delhi needed to get greater access to nuclear energy, especially given its commitment at the IDC climate forum.
China last year put a technical hold twice on India's
application to get Azhar banned by the UN.
This year, the US moved the proposal in the UNSC to designate Azhar, the mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack, as a terrorist. China once again has put a technical hold on the move.
On India's entry into the NSG, he said, "We have said many times this is a multilateral issue".
"We stick to two-step approach namely, first NSG members need to arrive at a set of principles for the entry of non-NPT state parties into NSG and then move forward discussions of specific cases," Geng said.
"Our position is consistent. Apart from India, other non-NPT state parties are also making applications. Our position on those applications is consistent," he said.
Whether the Azhar issue or the NSG issue, they are in essence multilateral issues and not bilateral ones, Geng said.
"We hope India can understand China's attitude and position on the two matters," he said, adding that China and India are the two largest developing counties having a wide range of converging interests.
"China India cooperation benefits not only two countries but the region and developing world which can contribute to our solidarity," he said.
