India has completed its troop withdrawal, says Maldives
After 18 months of China not having an Ambassador in India, senior diplomat Xu Feihong arrived in Delhi to assume oce as the 17th Ambassador to India on Friday, Chinese government-run media CGTN reported.
Mr. Xu said his priority is to work to restore exchanges and cooperation in various elds and create favourable conditions for a sound and steady IndiaChina relationship.
“President Xi [Jinping] and Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi have agreed on the important assessment that China and India are cooperation partners and not competitors. And reached an important common understanding that our two countries are each other’s development opportunities and not threats. This should serve as the fundamental guidelines for the growth of bilateral relations,” he told CGTN.
“As President Xi Jinping said, if China and India speak with one voice, the whole world will listen. If both countries join hands, the whole world will pay attention,” he added. Mr. Xu will succeed Sun Weidong, who completed his tenure as Ambassador to India in October 2022.
Ties between the two countries have been strained since tensions
The newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, being welcomed on arrival in Delhi on Friday.
along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following China’s multiple transgressions starting in April 2020 and violent clashes in Galwan in June 2020, which resulted in casualties on both sides.
Reaching out
Mr. Xu said he looks forward and trusts that he will have the support and assistance of the Indian government and friends from all sectors. “Both India and China are each other’s important neighbours and the biggest emerging markets and developing countries of the world. I will follow the important consensus between our leaders and reach out to friends from all sectors of India,” he said.
He said the world is facing multiple challenges such as climate change, food and energy prices, weak economic recovery and so on, and closer communication and coordination on global and regional aairs will not only bring
opportunities to both the countries and the world but also add stability and positivity to international relations.
Mr. Xu’s appointment comes against the backdrop of both India and China last month stating that there should be better relations between the two.
In April, in an interview with U.S. magazine Newsweek, Mr. Modi broke his silence on ties with China and the LAC stand-o, calling for the two sides to “urgently address the prolonged situation on our borders so that the abnormality in our bilateral interactions can be put behind us”. “I hope and believe that through positive and constructive bilateral engagement at the diplomatic and military levels, we will be able to restore and sustain peace and tranquillity in our borders,” Mr. Modi had said.
(The correspondent is in China at the invitation of the China Public Diplomacy Association)
India withdrew its last remaining soldiers stationed in the Maldives on Friday to meet a deadline set by the archipelago nation’s government, an ocial at the Maldivian Foreign Ministry said.
Pro-China President Mohamed Muizzu won oce last year while campaigning on a promise to downgrade ties with India, and has since reoriented the strategically placed archipelago nation towards Beijing. After coming to power, he demanded the withdrawal of at least 88 Indian soldiers who had been stationed in the territory to assist with maritime patrols.
The third and nal batch of 27 Indian troops left the archipelago on Friday, the ocial said. They added that there was no public ceremony held to mark the end of the Indian military deployment.
Both India and the Maldives struck a conciliatory note on Thursday, ahead of the withdrawal deadline.
Maldives Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer met his Indian counterpart during an ocial visit to New Delhi on Thursday, saying his trip marked a “new initiative of collaboration, symbolising enduring friendship and shared goals”.