Former foreign secretary S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that”India and China are sitting down to discuss their future, conscious that it rides on the ability to manage contradictions, which is no small development.”
In his address to the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank at the National University of Singapore, the former top diplomat said “As Asia rises, there are lessons that could be drawn from the experiences of others, especially Europe. It would appear that this realisation is as strong in Beijing as it is in New Delhi.”
Speaking on the PM Modi – President Xi Jinping meeting in Wuhan, Jaishanakr said that world history has shown the dangers of rising powers remaining self-absorbed. “Growing capabilities and influence actually require greater engagement with the world, not less” added Jaishankar.
Jaishanakr who served as Ambassador to China and the United States in his lecture said “India-China relations have always had a global context and will always have one. In an uncertain world, the Wuhan meeting was an important step in the direction of greater stability.”
These are actually the only two nations with over a billion in population each. They are also among the world’s major economies now. Their experiences in development and governance are worth exchanging, he said.
If its bilateral implications are concerned, the focus seems to have been on measures to strengthen stability and manage differences, Jaishankar said, adding that some extra effort seemed to have gone into finding common ground, whether on trade or on Afghanistan.
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