We advocate that regional countries should stand for dialogue without confrontation and work for partnership instead of alliance — China, on growing India-Japan ties

Beijing, Sept. 14: China on Thursday hoped that the growing ties between India and Japan would be conducive to the peace and stability and insisted that the countries in the region should work for partnership instead of forming an alliance.

The comments by the Chinese foreign ministry come as New Delhi and Tokyo sought to firm up their close ties during Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe’s visit to India.

India and Japan inked 15 agreements to further broad-base their strategic partnership and agreed to strengthen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region where China is increasing its assertiveness.

Asked about the growing Indo-Japan strategic partnership, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “We advocate that regional countries should stand for dialogue without confrontation and work for partnership instead of alliance.”

Ms Hua was replying to a question about Mr Abe’s visit to India.

Ms Hua, however, declined to comment on specific issue like Japan’s plans to sell US-2 amphibious aircraft to India, saying she would like to wait till a detailed readout from the two countries following a meeting between Mr Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Japan’s plans to sell the amphibious aircraft to India raised eyebrows here as this is first such move by Tokyo to sell defence equipment to any country.