‘China ready to play constructive role in India-Pakistan relations’
China’s new ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, speaks in an interview to Rezaul H Laskar on a wide range of issues, from the upcoming second informal summit between leaders of the two countries to India’s trade deficit and the tensions between India and Pakistan. Edited excerpts:
How successful was the Wuhan spirit in addressing differences and difficulties in India-China relations and promoting overall progress?
In April last year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an informal summit in Wuhan, creating a new model of highlevel exchanges between China and India. The two leaders put forward three recommendations. First, China and India should see each other as a positive factor in the changing international landscape. Second, development and growth of China and India is an important opportunity for each other. Third, China and India should analyse and view each other’s intentions in a positive, open and inclusive light.
Over the past year, the positive effects of the Wuhan summit are still unfolding. President Xi and Prime Minister Modi met five times on the sidelines of multilateral forums. Today, over 1,000 Chinese companies are doing business in India, with a cumulative investment of $8 billion, creating more than 200,000 jobs. China-India relations have shown sound momentum of development (which) has a positive impact on regional peace and stability.
As India and China prepare for the second informal summit, what are China’s expectations?
The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. The rise of emerging economies such as China and India has changed the international landscape. The world economy is again at a crossroads. The rise of protectionism and unilateralism has severely affected international stability. The global uncertainty and instability poses common challenge to both countries. Strengthening solidarity and cooperation between China and India presents an opportunity for our respective development and the world at large. To maintain high-level exchanges between China and India will play an irreplaceable important role in development of bilateral relations, and be conducive to the two countries’ focus on development and deepening cooperation.
Will China play any role in reducing tensions between India and Pakistan?
India and Pakistan are neighbours, and neighbours cannot be moved away from each other. As an old Chinese saying goes, “a close neighbour is better than a distant relative”. India and Pakistan are both important countries in South Asia and big developing countries. The root cause of tension between India and Pakistan is disputes left over from history.
If India and Pakistan settle disputes through dialogue and focus on social and economic development, it would not only create a stable environment for each other’s national development, but also help maintain regional peace and tranquillity. This is in line with the common expectation of regional countries and the international community.
As a common neighbour and friend of India and Pakistan, China sincerely wishes to see the two countries live in harmony and resolve disputes peacefully. China supports anything conducive to the improvement of IndiaPakistan relations and regional peace, stability and prosperity, and is ready to continue to play a constructive role to this end. What is China’s position on the peace process in Afghanistan? Can China and India work together to ensure a durable settlement that ensures a peaceful and stable Afghanistan? China has been playing an active role in promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. This year, China hosted the third China-Russia-US trilateral consultation on the Afghan issue and the first China-Russia-US-Pakistan meeting, and attended the third China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue.
State councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi has stressed the political arrangement for Afghanistan in future should follow three principles: First, it should have broad representation and inclusiveness to make all factions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan equally involved in political life and share state power. Second, it should unswervingly stick to counter-terrorism and never let Afghanistan become a safe haven for terrorist organisations. Third, it should follow a foreign policy of peace and friendship, especially with neighbouring countries, and play a constructive role in regional peace.
As neighbours of Afghanistan, China and India should work together to play a constructive role in helping Afghanistan realise peace, reconciliation, stability and development. During the Wuhan summit, President Xi and Prime Minister Modi reached an important consensus on “China-India plus” cooperation and partnered with Afghanistan in the first place. Building on this, China and India should further expand cooperation on the Afghan issue.
Your predecessor once talked about making China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and India’s Act East policy complementary. Do you think this is feasible?
The BRI and Act East policy are important initiatives of China and India respectively to promote openness, cooperation and regional connectivity. There is a huge demand for infrastructure connectivity in the region. China and India can definitely synergise cooperation policies and conduct trilateral cooperation to achieve mutual benefits and all-win results, and to enhance overall competitiveness.
Strengthening connectivity cooperation between China and India will become a new growth point in bilateral relations. The two sides can jointly explore a win-win cooperation model. India is a founding member and second largest shareholder of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the biggest beneficiary of AIIB’s funds. In addition, the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar economic corridor has made a good start in connectivity cooperation. China is willing to explore synergy of development strategies, and create a mutually beneficial and winwin prospect. What is being done to give a boost to India-China trade, especially at a time when international trade is being hit by the China-US trade war and unilateral actions from certain quarters that are affecting multilateral arrangements? What are your thoughts on addressing India’s growing trade deficit and the call for greater access to Chinese markets? With the escalation of international trade tensions, the US has repeatedly taken protectionist measures and unilateral actions, which severely impacted the multilateral trade system and posed challenges to world economic recovery and growth. With rising uncertainties in the external environment, China and India should uphold free trade and jointly speak against trade protectionism and unilateralism. The two sides can strengthen cooperation under the WTO (World Trade Organisation) framework, jointly safeguard legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and play their due roles in safeguarding the multilateral trading system and advancing WTO reforms. The two sides should work together to promote regional economic integration and speed up negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. The two sides could further promote trade growth by signing free trade agreements.
China has never pursued a trade surplus, and the trade imbalance between China and India is largely the result of differences in their industrial structures. China has taken active measures to increase imports from India, including lowering tariffs on some Indian imports to China, sending purchasing delegations to India, and assisting in export of Indian agricultural products and pharmaceuticals. Over the past five years, China’s imports from India increased by 15%.
In the first half of 2018, India’s trade deficit with China fell by 5% year on year, and its agricultural exports to China doubled over the same period last year. The box office of Indian films is twice as much in China as in India. These figures show China’s efforts and sincerity in addressing the trade imbalance.
China is ready to import products with high quality and competitive price which meet the needs of the Chinese market. China welcomes more exports of marketable and competitive Indian products.
We should take holistic measures such as increasing mutual investments, encouraging Indian companies to participate in China International Import Expo, upgrading Nathula border trade port, concluding RCEP as soon as possible to make the pie of cooperation even bigger and gradually reduce trade imbalance.