Right choice for India, China to be 'friends', Xi Jinping tells PM Narendra Modi

Tianjin: Chinese President Xi Jinping told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday that it is the "right choice" for the two countries to be "friends” and they should not let the border dispute define their relations.

The talks between the two leaders took place on the margins of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) here.

Xi told Modi that the two Asian neighbours should work together to ensure peace and tranquility in their border regions, and should not let the border issue define the overall China-India relations.

India and China are cooperation partners, not rivals, and the two countries are each other's development opportunities rather than threats, Xi said.

As long as the two countries stick to this overarching direction, China-India relations can sustain steady and long-term growth, Xi said.

“It is the right choice for both to be friends who have good neighbourly and amicable ties, partners who enable each other's success, and to have the dragon and the elephant dance together," he said.

The meeting between the two leaders took place against the backdrop of Washington's tariff tussle that has impacted almost all leading economies across the world.

Noting that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of China-India diplomatic relations, Xi said the two countries need to view and handle bilateral ties from a strategic and long-term perspective to ensure their sustained, sound and steady development.

Xi said China and India should become neighbours on good terms and partners helping each other succeed. A "cooperative pas de deux (dance) of the dragon and the elephant" should be the right choice for the two countries, he said.

He called on New Delhi and Beijing to strengthen strategic communication to deepen mutual trust, expand exchanges and win-win cooperation, heed each other's concerns to seek harmonious coexistence, and enhance multilateral collaboration to safeguard common interests.

We both shoulder the historical responsibility of improving the well-being of our two peoples, promoting the solidarity and rejuvenation of developing countries, and propelling the progress of human society, Xi said.

In an apparent dig at US President Donald Trump's unilateral policies, he also said both countries should uphold multilateralism.

"We must also step up our historic responsibility to uphold multilateralism, work together to bring about a multipolar world and more democracy in international relations and to make our due contributions to peace and prosperity in Asia and around the world," he said.

Xi also told Modi that the world is currently going through once-in-a-century transformations.

The international situation is both fluid and chaotic. China and India are two ancient civilisations in the east, we are the world's two most populous countries, and we are also the oldest members of the Global South, he said.

This was the first meeting of the two leaders in about ten months and it assumed significance in view of a sudden downturn in India-US ties triggered by Washington's policies on trade and tariffs.