Sino-India ties will emerge stronger, scale new heights after COVID-19 pandemic: China

Some of the events planned by India and China to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties starting from Wednesday will be hit by the virus outbreak but the cooperation between the dragon and the elephant will emerge stronger and their relationship can scale new heights after the pandemic, a senior Chinese official said.

On April 1, 1950, India became the first non-Communist country in Asia to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC).

"First of all, Congratulations! Because today marks the 70th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties between China and India," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here.

"The two Heads of State exchanged the congratulatory messages," Hua said while responding to a question.

Both the counties have finalised an ambitious 70 celebratory activities, a host of cultural, religious and trade promotion activities round the year besides military exchanges to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

But all such event may not take place in the near future as both the countries were going through most difficult times dealing with the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 42,000 people worldwide.

While China made gradual efforts to open up as the coronavirus cases abated, India is currently under a 21-day nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the virus.

The two countries together finalised 70 events to celebrate the event in line with the understanding reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their 2nd Informal Summit at Mamallapuram on October 11-12 last year.

"I guess some of them (events) will be affected by the pandemic but I believe, our exchanges and cooperation will only emerge stronger after the pandemic and we also hope we can elevate our relationships and scale new heights," she said.

"In Chennai, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to take the opportunity of the 70th anniversary of our diplomatic ties to hold 70 separate celebrating activities, which will deepen the bilateral exchange in our legislature, business, academics and so on," Hua said.

State-run Xinhua news agency carried a commentary on the 70 years of establishment of Sino-India diplomatic ties, saying "7 decades on, China-India ties face ample chances for new development."
"The two countries should also jointly oppose trade protectionism, and advocate multilateralism by bolstering international cooperation via such platforms as the Group of 20, BRICS and the SCO,", it said