BEIJING, DELHI SHOULD START NEW CHAPTER: CHINESE ENVOY

Chinese envoy to India Luo Zhaohui has said it was time for India and China to turn the old page and start a new chapter, stressing that two have made a lot of progress at bilateral level.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BRICS Summit in Xiamen earlier this month, and the two leaders sent a clear message of “reconciliation” and “cooperation”, he said on Friday in remarks which come in the backdrop of the Doklam row.

“We should turn the old page and start a new chapter with the same pace. We should dance together. We should make one plus one eleven. China is the largest trading partner of India. We have made a lot of progress at the bilateral level, as well as in international and regional affairs,” Luo said.

The Chinese envoy was speaking on the 68th anniversary of founding of the People’s Republic of China.

India and China, who went to war in 1962, share an uneasy relationship and territorial dispute is a major bone of contention between the two countries.

The two nations recently agreed to disengagement of troops in Doklam where their armies were locked in a stand- off for over two months.

The Chinese diplomat also recalled one of his teachers, Prof Xu Fancheng, who lived in Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry from 1945 to 1978. Xu is known for translating Bhagawad Gita and Shakuntala from Sanskrit to Chinese.

“In our bilateral engagement, there have been thousands of prominent persons like Prof Xu Fancheng, (Buddhist monk) Bodhidharma, Faxian and Rabindranath Tagore.

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