Chinese Ambassador to India on President Xi Jinping's visit to India accpeted an interview with Chinese media in India.

 

International Online reports (Reporter Sun Yang): September 19, 2014: From September 17 to 19, the Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to India.  The Chinese head of state will visit India once again after a gap of eight years. After the establishment of the new government in India this will be the first visit of any great leader. On the eve of  President Xi's visit to India, the Chinese Ambassador to India Le Yucheng accepted an interview with the Chinese media in India on the achievements and outlook for President Xi's visit to India, and  achievements in areas such as Sino-Indian relations, economic cooperation, multilateral cooperation and other issues. He answers the reporters' questions on the above issues. The main contents are as follows: 

 

Reporter：Respected Excellency Ambassador, President Xi Jinping is the first  big nation's leader to visit India after the establishement of a new government by the BJP. His visit will bring a far-reaching impact on bilateral relations. Could you please speak about the opportunities that are gong to come about in strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries by this visit?

 

Ambassador Le Yucheng：This is a Chinese head of state to visit India once again after a gap of eight years, after the establishment of the new government in India this will be  first visit of any great leader, this fully embodies that the Chinese government attaches great importance to India and China-India relations.

 

Geopolitically, China and India are neighboring countries, they are on the  same phase of development,  their international claims are similar. Sino-Indian relations already have a good foundation. In recent years, there were  frequent high-level exchanges between China and India. Last year, the two prime ministers realized mutual visits  for the first time in decades. There are active cultural exchanges, the number of Chinese students in India are more than 2500, and the number Indian students in China is about 10,000. Last year, the economic and trade cooperation has continuously  widened,  and the bilateral trade volume reached 65.4 billion U.S. dollars. China and India are currently at a critical period of national rejuvenation. China is engaged in comprehensive  reforms, and wants to create "an upgraded version of the Chinese economy, and we want to achieve the great rejuvenation of the"China Dream.". Skill,  Scale, Speed are the  "3S”.  India is accelerating the process of change and development: Promoting skills , scale and speed of "3S" strategy, in order to achieve the rapid development of the Indian economy and get society back on the track.  President Xi's visit will effectively promote the development of Sino-Indian strategic docking, develop complementary advantages and will promote development experience and mutual learning.

 

From the international and regional aspects, China and India are the most populous countries and big Asian countries, major developing countries and important BRIC countries. The current international system has experienced several decades of the most complex and profound changes in the global economy and accelerated the shift towards strategic focus in the Asia-Pacific context. The mutual  international aspirations and concerns for China and India increased significantly and the most significant  are the consultations on a range of international and regional issues, and the cohesion on the new consensus. 

 

I believe President Xi's visit will be a "landmark visit", promoting the strategic partnership between the two countries and opening up new prospects. It will also have an important positive impact on the promotion of peace, stability and prosperity in Asia and the world.

 

Reporter：Could you please explain the concrete results and outlook from President Xi's visit to India. share 

 

Ambassador Le Yucheng：President Xi's visit is  not only of great significance, but also is wide-ranging and fruitful. All the preparations for this visit have reached to final stage. In general, the results of the visit are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

 

From a strategic perspective, the two leaders will conduct strategic planning for the  future development of bilateral relations. To enrich the connotation of strategic partnership relations between the two countries and enhance bilateral strategic relations , they agreed on high-level visits between the two countries in various fields and that at all levels there will be consultation arrangements. The two leaders will also exchange views on a wide range of international and regional issues, share consensus on the issue of climate change, counter-terrorism, food security and global governance, strengthening bilateral cooperation mechanisms in China, Russia and India, the BRICS countries, the Group of Twenty, the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, etc. will further enhance mutual understanding, exchanges and mutual learning, mutual cooperation and peaceful coexistence.

 

From the perspective of economic and trade cooperation, China and India are the large fast-growing countries in the world and are also the first and the third largest economies of Asia. Bilateral economic and trade cooperation has great potential and broad prospects. During President Xi's visit to India, there will be nearly  20 agreements that are expected to be signed between the two countries  in the fields of trade, investment, finance, infrastructure, etc. These agreements will greatly expand Sino-Indian economic and trade cooperation, and  will tap the potential for cooperation,  break bottlenecks of collaboration and enhance the level of cooperation, expand the scale of cooperation.  Taking into account the huge economies of China and India, and that both the countries have highly complementary endowments and economic structures, with the growing mutual political trust and closer trade relations, we have every reason to believe that the prospects for Sino-India economic and trade cooperation will be even brighter.

 

From the perspective of cultural exchanges , the two great civilisations of China and India stretch thousands of years of historical evolution and long-term mutual learning. They are also  known as Eastern civilizations' "Two Jades." President Xi's visit will further tap the benefits of cultural similarities of China and India, will promote the "Xuan Zang cultural exchange planning", the two countries will promote cultural and sports, film and television, tourism, youth, media, think tanks and other personnel exchanges, will further promote the inherented historical ties between the two peoples, and strengthen cultural ties between the two peoples, to narrow the emotional bond between the two peoples, and will make this Sino-Indian friendship inter-generational. President Xi's visit to India will first start from Gujarat. The Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang  has visited pilgrimage places of the present western Indian state of Gujarat. This state is also the home state of Indian PM Modi and he has developed this state's economic model during his tenure as CM, which is now popularly known as "Gujarat Model". This time the Guangdong Province and Gujarat will be friendly states and Guangzhou and Ahmedabad will be sister cities. During the visit the Chinese President will also visit the family members of Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis, and China will award  "friendly Indian personages" and will also issue a "peaceful coexistence Friendship Award."  This year is the "China-India Friendship Exchange Year" and a variety of exchanges and cooperation on cultural, academic, youth, education, media and other fields between the two countries will be carried out. Undoubtedly, President Xi's visit will inject new vigor and vitality in the "China-India Friendship Exchange Year" .

 

Reporter：Could you please explain the progress made ​​in the negotiations of the border issue and the efforts made ​​by both sides .

 

  Ambassador Le Yucheng：Sino-Indian border issue is a historical legacy. Over the years the leaders of China-India have been  foresighted and the two sides have made unremitting efforts to resolve the complex and sensitive border issue. Since the establishment of the Sino-Indian border issue Special Representatives meeting mechanism in 2003, the Special Representatives from both sides have so far carried out 17 round of meetings on this issue.  The two sides developed a "three-step" road-map. Currently for resolving the border issue we have arrived at the political guiding principles. Efforts are made to advance the framework of the negotiation process, in order to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution. In 2012 the border affairs consultation and coordination mechanism was established. In 2013, the two countries signed the "Border Cooperation Agreement", in order to enhance  direct communication of mutual border defense units, proper management and control of differences, jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border areas.

 

I would like to point out, with a long history of friendly exchanges between the two countries, the huge prospects for cooperation between the two,  the differences and problems between the two countries is  like  a small finger among the ten fingers. The current relations between China and India are facing great developments and enhanced historic opportunity. Both sides need to think about how to incorporate the border issue  in the development and prosperity goals between the two countries, and it has already Included in the framework of bilateral strategic partnership.  Greater efforts needs  to be made from both sides to  properly control and carefully handle this issue. I believe that as long as both sides have enough will and determination, they will eventually find a mutually acceptable way to resolve the border issue. Practice has proved that as long as we respect and care for each other's concerns, through dialogue rather than confrontation to control differences, we can completely handle properly the border issues. For the final settlement of the border issue and the development of bilateral relations we need to create favorable conditions.