India-China relations have reached a "new level of development": Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong

[00:00:00]Uh I do want to tell you ambassador Shu is on a very tight schedule. So he will not be taking your questions. So I'm hoping to take some of the questions I've already got from the audience uh for you. Now for all of you and this is not just uh those who are covering diplomacy closely. We know this from the beginning of this decade from the 2020s India and China's relationship has been a roller coaster ride. Um I think from the highs we saw just before the decade in Wuhan and Mamlapuram where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese President Xiinping met not just uh held meetings but spent time together hours one- on-one. Um and that seemed to be a high in the relationship where it was followed by one of the lows. the first uh such incident in more than 40 years um in uh most violent point in Galwan before they began to resume ties in 2024. So we want to speak on this session about what's happening now um how the process of revival of ties came about that took Prime Minister Modi to Tenzhen last year um and could bring President Xi to India later this year or soon but also of how they are scripting the resumption of that part of the relationship that really did get most ruptured the people-to-people ties the trust the travel the tourism and the trade our guest is ambassador Shu and thank you so much for speaking. I know that you don't come out often and and and take questions. So it's a particular privilege for the Hindu that you have come here. I want to start with how you arrived in India in May 2024. We were just about to have elections uh and um relations still were extremely strained. Did you know already that the process was going to start and and uh who took the first step?

[00:02:00]>> Thank you very much. Uh good morning to everybody. So I'm very glad to visit uh bank Bangalore and attend the Hindu Harle. This is for my first time to visit this very beautiful city and uh I'm very happy to answer your questions and share my views with friends at present know that um the India China India relationship is one of the most important relationships in this world.

[00:02:29]Its importance extends the bilateral scope and carries the global significance global strategic significance.

[00:02:39]The development of the relationship of between our two sides has drawn high attentions from the world throughout the time and recently I'm very glad to see that uh tangible and gradual progress has been made in our bilateral ties. we can find that we have resumed the direct flights between the cities. We have resumed the pilgrimage and from the Indian side, India's e restrictions to the Chinese people's visa and the Chinese investment. So in fact that uh this process started almost one year ago and still underway but of course uh those achievements made due to the joint efforts by both of us our aides and uh I'm expecting that more fruitful outcomes will be achieved in the coming time. Thank you.

[00:03:34]>> Sure. And it is necessary also to look at what happened in the past in a way to make sure perhaps it doesn't again you know in in the Hindu uh a few days ago former Indian ambassador to China Shanta wrote a piece talking about how some of the gains of the past uh some of the trust of the India China relationship of the past had been forged in agreements.

[00:03:56]Uh there was uh a 1993 LAC border peace and tranquility agreement. 2005 uh political agreement on finding an understanding. Recently we saw in Beijing another meeting uh of the two sides. I wanted to ask ambassador what are some of the lessons that have been learned in this process of things you can do and things that should not be uh repeated in a sense to ensure that this kind of situation that we saw violence on the line of actual control uh in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed um as well as Chinese soldiers uh does not happen again.

[00:04:35]So um in regard of your question what kind of lessons can be drawn uh from the freeze and resumption of the ties I think it's true we have some lessons to conclude and even some lessons are very valuable so first of all I think uh that the leaders of our two countries play a leading play a leading role in providing strategic guidance for the relationships between our two countries.

[00:05:10]Both President Xiinping and Prime Minister Modi attach great importance to the bilateral ties and view the bilateral relationship from strategic and long-term perspective since 2020.

[00:05:26]They had maintained multiple interactions with each other and both of them and the most important two meetings were respectively held in Kazang in 2024 Russia and in Tenzen 2025 in China and they agreed that a stable and healthy relationship between China and India will not only serve serve the interests of our two countries but benefit the peace and prosperity of this region.

[00:06:04]So according to the consensus of these of the leaders, the diplomatic teams of our two sides have been working very hard to step up cooperation and communication to advance the implement implementation of the common understanding of the two leaders. So just now at the very beginning I just mentioned the progress they have made.

[00:06:29]This is the progress they have made and has been witnessed by us. So I would say that uh the leaders has played the le led the country the led the relations of our two countries from a reset from a fresh start to a new level of improvement. And the second lesson I would say that uh the correct mutual perception has been given has be given has given us a clear positioning in our respective diplomacy.

[00:07:03]You know that the two leaders just agreed China India are cooperation partners not rivals are development opportunities not threats. This is a very important orientation of the relations of the two countries. You know that uh China and India are the only two countries in the world with a pure population more than 1.4 billion people and both of us are major emerging economies with broad prospects for development.

[00:07:42]So these similarities just tell us we should expand our common grounds and narrow differences to avoid misunderstanding and mischargement.

[00:07:53]We should find a ways to get well along with each other. So uh in fact that we have been doing in this way and have been benefited from it. Just like Indian proverb says that uh help your brother's boat cross your own will reach the shore. In China we have a similar saying that those help others will receive helps in return. So the phil the wisdom of the ancient philosophy injects new momentum into the development of the relations and also have the uh third uh uh uh you know that experience I just want to say that uh an objective view towards the differences has been taken by our two sides China and India has more than 2,000 year of year history of exchange changes. But you can find out that the twist turns were only a very short episode in the uh history and uh the friend exchanges remained a defining feature in the relations. I still remember last year uh when uh what uh Prime Minister Modi said when he was interviewed by podcast, he just pointed out that the differences between India and China are as natural as in the family. Our focus is to prevent these differences from escalating into disputes.

[00:09:29]So the prime minister took this very wise view from historic and uh strategic perspective.

[00:09:39]So China and India as two ancient civilizations, we have enough wisdom and capability to find effective ways to accom accommodate each other's core interests and major concerns and properly settle all the those differences through dialogue and consultation. I am confident in that.

[00:10:04]>> All right. But even so the the boundary question remains and is being discussed.

[00:10:09]Um the truth is this was no ordinary incident that we saw and therefore now we see a much quicker pace of the boundary uh uh talks that are going on uh right now. Do we see some light uh uh at the end of that tunnel? You know we heard from external affairs minister Jay Shankr say uh including in an interview to the Hindu that we don't know why what happened in 2020 happened. why the PLA he said behaved the way it did and of course on the Chinese side uh uh there are questions about what the Indian side was doing. I I come back to that. Do you see light when it comes to the boundary question?

[00:10:47]You know that um it is true we have made progress and improvement in our relations but the full re normalization of our ties still cause the joint and continued efforts from our two countries.

[00:11:06]So how to realize the full normalization?

[00:11:12]I think the boundary question will be a very important one. We should handle it properly and uh in fact that uh the b the boundary question between our two countries is very complex and sensitive left over from the history. It concerns about the sentiments of the two peoples and requires dialogue and consultation to seek a fair, reasonable and mutual acceptable resolution.

[00:11:50]And in recent years, our two sides have kept very close communication on the boundary question through these important mechanisms. Just like the meeting of the special representative on the boundary question and the working mechanism for consultation coordination on border affairs and uh I still remember that last August Chinese foreign minister Mr. Wangi paid a visit to India and co-chared with his excellency the national security advisor Miss Dovo the 24th uh meeting of the SR and they reached a 10point consensus and agreed to set up an expert group to explore the early harvest on of uh boundary delimitation on appropriate sectors. us and they also agreed to set up a working group to advance the bound border management and only last week the 35th meeting of the WNCC was held in Beijing. the important issues just like uh the boundary delimitation the border management the mechanism building and the crossber communication cooperation were fully addressed by that meeting. So nowadays I will assure you that uh the border situation is peaceful and stable and China always believes that the boundary question should be placed as a proposition in our relations and we should not allow the boundary question define the overall relationship of our to our two countries. still less let specific differences affect the bilateral cooperation. So I think of course the boundary is very critical and also you know that uh between our two sides we have some another issue should be uh call attention from the jo from the two sides. the that one is the you know that we should step up exchanges to enhance mutual trust. Just now I said that uh we can take an objective view to all the differences. It is true but in fact the mutual trust between our two sides and the deficit is very serious.

[00:14:32]you know that uh the exchanges between the decision- making bodies of the two governments are not enough. We used to have about 50 mechanisms official mechanisms for dialogue and consultation between our two sides. Unfortunately, most of them remain stalled.

[00:14:53]The insufficient exchange may probably be resulted in the increase of misunderstanding as misjudgment and also the level of people-to-people exchange is low and unbalanced just now that we do not have any Chinese journalists based in India. It's you know very this kind of exchange is very low. So it is not it will be you know that detrimental to enhancing the mutual understanding and friendship between our two sides. China is ready to exch to resume all the exchanges with India in various fields and at various levels. So as to you know that increase our standing our standings and I'm sure that the more exchange we have the better we understand each other the stronger the mutual trust and will grow so it's a very good way in fact >> no I'm glad you brought that up ambassador because um the the mutual trust as you said means bringing back these mechanisms now in the last year since you've uh certainly been here uh we've seen the resumption of travel we've seen flights restarted with some of the cities. Um you know Begaluru used to be called the silicon city. It's in many ways it is India's tech capital. Uh and there's a question that we constantly hear from businessmen here but also businessmen in China uh Indian businessmen you would have heard uh about uh what we call non-tariff barriers. the idea that there are restrictions on Chinese exports of certain uh things like rare earths. Uh there are on um the Indian side we saw restrictions on Chinese investment being lessened. Where do you see the real hurdles when it comes to increasing trade and what India always wants increasing balanced trade and how much do you think these two countries can cooperate in the field of AI?

[00:16:59]uh that's true that um we should expand mutually beneficial cooperation and pursue common development.

[00:17:07]you know that both China and India have made uh economic development strategies at present China is engaged in the rejuvenation through modernization and India is driving forward the Vixit uh Barat 2047 vision. So the development is the biggest common denominator between our two countries and in fact at recent years we have seen the steady growth of economic and uh trade cooperation. China is the biggest trading partner for India according to the statistics of Indian government. Last year the trade volume between our two sides was about 151 billion US dollars. So I would say that there is a very strong potentiality to strengthen our cooperation in the trade and economic field. Just now you raised the issue about the limits on each side. But in fact I would say that u for Chinese side we encourage the Indian friends to go to China to expand its cooperation with Chinese partners.

[00:18:21]We welcome Indian friends go to attend the Shanghai import export to promote your products and go to Quian to attend the China South Asia export to promote you know that strengthen your ties with the Chinese counter counterparts and I'm very happy to see that uh gradually Indian side has eased the restrictions on the Chinese investment you have changed a little bit on the PN3 PN3 But uh frankly speaking is still a part you know that uh optimization.

[00:18:59]>> Sure.

[00:18:59]>> Not a complete rationalization.

[00:19:03]Yes.

[00:19:03]>> When you said uh you know visit we've also seen the resumption of the kalash manser over yatra. I want to quickly segue to some more uh multilateral issues because of course India and China are part of bricks. they're part of SEO.

[00:19:17]Um recently US Secretary of Defense Pete Hex said in Shangriila we need more ships less uh Shangriila uh in a sense he was saying that you need to have less of these uh I you know coalitions that don't do much more than conversation can bricks actually come together um later this year with some kind of a cohesive agenda particularly given you know every other session has spoken about the war in Iran and how it has uh really disrupted disrupted global uh trade. Um and would President Xiinping be coming to India later this year for the brick summit?

[00:19:55]>> Uh you just put the four important organizations in the same box. It's a little bit difficult for me to answer.

[00:20:02]You know that u this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the bricks. over the 20 uh years uh the it has become it has evolved from a more four member group into the greater bricks. Now its member states has contributed more than 40% of the global economic growth and according to the IM IMF data if measured by the PPP the purchasing power parity the combined economic output of the bricks has surpassed that of G7. So in these terms that bricks is not only an important platform for the emerging emerging com uh countries but also a very important key driver for global governance reform and also uh this year marks the 25th anniversary of the SEO. Originally it was called as Shanghai 5. Now it has become a comprehensive regional organization and its population accounts for about 40% of the global total and uh it's uh GDP accounts for about uh 25% of the global GDP. It's also a very important organization in maintaining the regional security and promoting the regional cooperation and the bricks you know that uh and the SEO serve as vital platforms for developing countries to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to participate in the global uh governance.

[00:21:43]The vigorous evol evolvement of the bricks and the SEO reflects the profound change of the global power trans uh landscape dur global power landscape and also embodies the international community's call for greater democracy in the international relations. Not long ago, a very important poll report was released by the Indian think tank. It says that about 73% of the young people of India believes the bricks and SEO can serve as alternatives to the western le global governance mechanisms. So I think this is a very good answer to your to your question.

[00:22:37]>> All right. So there are places they can work here in South Asia and I can't let you go without asking about it. You've served in Afghanistan as well.

[00:22:45]>> The basic hurdle if you ask me to mutual trust is China's Pakistan relationship.

[00:22:52]Uh a year ago when we were all here for the Hindu huddle and uh operation Synindhur was underway the India Pakistan 4-day conflict uh there was a sense in India that China had really supported Pakistan. Is this according to you going to become a hurdle again?

[00:23:08]Because of course you know the conflict continues, the tensions with Pakistan continue. How does China work with India and South Asia while this does?

[00:23:18]>> China you know that attaches greater importance to its relations with neighboring countries. Guided by the principle of amit sincerity, mutual benefits and inclusiveness, China pursues its cooperative and friendly ties with all neighboring countries including South Asia countries and uh Pakistan and India are neighbors to each other and also neighbors to Pakistan and India also neighbors to China. We just hope that uh uh India and Pakistan will seek the resolutions on the differences through negotiations and dialogue because geographically you can never separated from each sides. The good relations between our two countries will benefit the two peoples and the two countries and also it will be conducive to maintain the peace and pro tie development and prosperity of the this region. So that's why we support India and Pakistan to settle all differences through negotiations and dialogue.

[00:24:35]All right, Ambassador, I'm going to thank you for your candid answers. Um, before you go, an answer on President Xi coming to India. Is this likely this year sometime soon? you know that uh this year uh India uh is the presidency of the bricks bricks and in fact that u uh China has uh actively part participated in all the events under the framework of the bricks and um you know that the summit is the highlight of the bricks and we also believe that the meeting by the leaders will steer the high quality quality development of this organization in the f in the future. So China together with all those member countries we are fully getting prepared for this very important occasion and now there are still three months for us to get prepared. So I couldn't give you a very exact answer and the proper information now but I hope you will keep uh uh tuned and uh we will keep you informed uh on time.

[00:25:51]>> All right so the normalization is a work in progress and watch this space for more on India China I'm sorry we can't take questions uh ambassador Shu does have to go but ambassador Fe Shu Fe Hong thanks so much for joining us.