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Chinese foreign ministry says Indo-China ties have shown 'sound momentum' ahead of second informal summit

WION
New Delhi, IndiaWritten By: Sidhant SibalUpdated: Oct 08, 2019, 10:05 PM IST
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File photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photograph:(Zee News Network)

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China has said that ties with India have seen "sound momentum" and has suggested a dialogue between India and Pakistan to solve the Kashmir issue.

Ahead of the second Indo-China informal summit that will happen in Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu over the weekend, China has said that ties have seen "sound momentum" and has suggested a dialogue between India and Pakistan to solve the Kashmir issue.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said, "China and India are important neighbours to each other. Both are large developing countries as well as major emerging markets. Since the Wuhan Informal Summit last year, China-India relations have shown sound momentum of development."

"The two sides have steadily advanced cooperation in various fields and properly manage differences and sensitive issues", Shuang added. 

"Both sides are also in communication on the next stage of bilateral high-level exchanges. The two sides should jointly create a favourable atmosphere and environment for high-level exchanges", Shuang said.

The first India China informal summit took place in Wuhan in April of 2018.

On Kashmir, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that both India and Pakistan must "strengthen dialogue". The Pakistani Prime Minister is currently in China and to hold talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

India has always maintained that New Delhi and Islamabad have to bilaterally resolve all matters in accordance with the Simla and Lahore agreements.

China, along with Pakistan has been very vocal at the international stage on Kashmir since New Delhi revoked the special status for the region. 

Meanwhile, Chinese envoy to India, Sun Weidong in a series of tweets highlighted how China's imports from India have increased by five per cent. Trade deficit has been a major issue for India. The country has asked China many times to open its market for Indian goods especially the pharma sector. 

During last year's Wuhan informal summit, leaders of both India and China gave strategic guidance to forces of both the countries to avoid the repetition of the Doklam crisis. 

Other key outcomes of the Wuhan summit included the establishment of the India-China High-Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges (HLM). The second meet of the mechanism happened earlier this year during External Affairs Minister Jaishankar's China visit. Both sides have also decided to jointly train Afghan diplomats, with the first batch trained last year, and the second due this year.