Don’t let boundary issue of the past define current India-China ties: Chinese envoy

admin — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 16:28:00 +0000

Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

India-China ties reached a “new level of improvement” after the recent meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Tianjin, Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong said on Tuesday. He said the two countries should not let the boundary dispute define ties between them.

Speaking at a function in Delhi to celebrate China’s National Day, Mr. Xu, who was joined by Arun Kumar Chatterjee, Secretary, External Affairs Ministry, said this year marks 76 years of the Communist Party government and 75 years since the establishment of India-China diplomatic relations and had seen a major improvement in high-level engagements and people-to-people ties.

Also Read | Should India overlook boundary issues while normalising ties with China?

Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi have met twice in the past year, and both sides have agreed to restore flights, visas, and other bilateral mechanisms after the four-year-freeze on ties due to the military stand-off at the Line of Actual Control.

“Bridging differences through dialogue has always been the important key to advancing China-India relations,” Mr. Xu said, adding that the two countries “should not allow the boundary question that was left over from the past to define the current China-India relations, nor let specific differences affect comprehensive bilateral cooperation”. During the LAC stand-off, New Delhi had maintained that normal bilateral relations were not possible without normalcy at the boundary.

Also Read | Modi-Xi meet repaired India-China relations, but its importance should not be overstated: experts

“Over the past 75 years, despite the ups and downs, the relationship is overwhelmingly defined by friendly cooperation,” Mr. Xu told a gathering of diplomats and Indian invitees at the event.

According to the envoy, the Chinese Embassy has issued 2,65,000 visas to Indian citizens in 2025 and resumed the facilitation of pilgrims to Kailash-Mansarovar, following which 700 official pilgrims and 20,000 private pilgrims undertook the yatra this year. Mr. Xu said that between January and August, bilateral trade in goods grew 10.4% year-on-year to $102 billion.

EDITORIAL | A productive visit: On India-China ties

These were Mr. Xu’s first public comments since Mr. Modi’s visit to China on August 30, seven years after his last visit amid a thaw in relations. Last month, the envoy had criticised the U.S. for “bullying” India by imposing 50% tariffs and expressed China’s support to India to shore up the international trading order.

India and U.S. have since resumed trade negotiations, although the U.S. tariffs have not been rolled back. Referring to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit that Mr. Modi attended, Mr. Xu said Mr. Xi had proposed a “Global Governance Initiative”, calling for “adherence to sovereign equality, abiding by international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating the people-centred approach”.

Published – September 23, 2025 09:58 pm IST

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After 18 months, China sends Ambassador to India

admin — Fri, 10 May 2024 17:45:54 +0000

Newly-appointed Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong is welcomed on arrival in Delhi, on Friday. MEA officials, Chinese Embassy officials and the Dean of Diplomatic Corps Ambassador Alem Tsehaye Woldemariam of Eritrea to India welcomed the Chinese Ambassador.
| Photo Credit: ANI

After 18 months of China not having an Ambassador in India, senior diplomat Xu Feihong arrived in Delhi to assume office as the 17th Ambassador to India on Friday, Chinese government-run media CGTN reported.

Mr. Xu said that his priority is to work to restore exchanges and cooperation in various fields and create favourable conditions for a sound and steady India-China relationship.

“President Xi [Jinping] and Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi have agreed on the important assessment that China and India are cooperation partners and not competitors. And reached an important common understanding that our two countries are each other’s development opportunities and not threats. This should serve as the fundamental guidelines for the growth of bilateral relations,” he told CGTN.

“As President Xi Jinping said, if China and India speak with one voice, the whole world will listen. If both countries join hands, the whole world will pay attention,” he added. Mr. Xu will succeed Sun Weidong, who completed his tenure as Ambassador to India in October 2022.

Ties between the two countries have been strained since tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), following China’s multiple transgressions starting in April 2020 and violent clashes in Galwan in June 2020, which resulted in casualties on both sides.

Mr. Xu said that he looks forward and trusts that he will have the support and assistance of the Indian government and friends from all sectors. “Both India and China are each other’s important neighbours and the biggest emerging markets and developing countries of the world. I will follow the important consensus between our leaders and reach out to friends from all sectors of India,” he said.

He said that the world is facing multiple global challenges such as climate change, food and energy prices, weak economic recovery and so on, and closer communication and coordination on global and regional affairs will not only bring opportunities to both the countries and the world but also add stability and positivity to international relations. “It will have an important positive impact on the development of a fair and reasonable international order,” he said.

Mr. Xu’s appointment comes against the backdrop of both India and China last month stating that there should be better relations between the countries.

In April, in an interview with U.S. magazine Newsweek,Mr. Modi broke his silence on ties with China and the LAC stand-off since April 2020, calling for the two sides to “urgently address the prolonged situation on our borders so that the abnormality in our bilateral interactions can be put behind us”. “I hope and believe that through positive and constructive bilateral engagement at the diplomatic and military levels, we will be able to restore and sustain peace and tranquility in our borders,” Mr. Modi had said.

Responding to the Prime Minister’s comments, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson of China, Mao Ning had said that sound and stable China-India relations serve the interests of both countries and the boundary question does not represent the entirety of China-India relations, and it should be placed appropriately in bilateral relations and managed properly.

(The correspondent is in China at the invitation of the China Public Diplomacy Association)

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Don’t let boundary issue of the past define current India-China ties: Chinese envoy

After 18 months, China sends Ambassador to India