Ready to work with India on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, says China
CPEC project
On the border issue, the ambassador said it was important not change the "status quo" and both sides needed to be clear about it.
In an interview with China's state-run daily Global Times, India's newly-appointed ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale said people in India do not have an anti-China mentality while asserting that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC) "violates" India's territorial integrity.
Bambawale said India and China have common positions on several international and global issues, including climate change. The ambassador, however, was quick to point out that post-Doklam, India and China need to talk to each other and "converse with each other much more than in the past."
"The more we talk to each other, the easier it will become to resolve problems," the ambassador said on the contentious CPEC row, while adding that on vast majority issues, the two sides are already "working together".
"This should be done at many different levels, including at the leadership level, the official level, and the people-to-people level," the Indian ambassador said on the Doklam issue.
"With enhanced trust and understanding will come a stronger partnership between India and China," he said, adding, "we are not rivals."
Reacting to the Indian ambassador's statement, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: "China stands ready to communicate and hold talks with India to seek a proper solution so that these differences will not affect our general national interests."
"This best serves the interests of the two countries," Chunying added.
"We should not ask one party alone to solve this problem. We are willing to work with India to work with dialogue and communication for a better solution," she said.
"CPEC is merely an economic cooperation project. It has not targeted any third party. We hope the Indian side can put this in perspective and we stand ready to strengthen cooperation with the Indian side," the foreign ministry spokesman said.
On the border issue, the Indian ambassador said it was important not to change the "status quo" and both sides needed to be clear about it.
"Our interaction must be based on equality and mutual benefit," Bambawale added.
"We must continue to work in tandem in our counter-terrorism efforts," he said, adding that, "I would even suggest that we need to expand our cooperation in counter-terrorism."
"Both countries are currently focused inward on ensuring their own economic development and social progress," he said. "China is further down this road than India," the ambassador felt.