China confident about resolving border dispute in the 15th round of talks -

New Delhi/Beijing: The 15th round of talks for resolving the Ladakh border dispute are scheduled to start on Friday. The Chinese foreign ministry expressed confidence that a solution acceptable to both countries would evolve from this round of talks. India once again reminded China that if the relations between the two countries have to be normalised, peace and camaraderie has to prevail on the border. China fears sanctions from the United States for supporting Russia on the Ukraine issue. Therefore, China is taking this reconciliatory stand on the Ladakh border dispute. Zhao Lijian, the spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, expressed confidence that the 15th round of talks will produce a solution acceptable for both countries. Both the countries have presented their stands clearly during the previous discussions and have tried to understand the position of the other. Lijian said that the effect of this will be visible in the 15th round. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had made an important statement regarding relations with India. Wang Yi has confessed that a major jolt has been delivered to Indo-China relations.

Chinese Foreign Minister tried to persuade, ‘But such jolts to the India-China relations are not in Chinese interest. The border dispute should not affect comprehensive bilateral relations. Both the countries should become partners in each other’s success instead of being enemies.’ Zhao Lijian, the spokesman of the Chinese foreign ministry, also presented the Chinese stand in a similar language. Indian and Chinese interests are common and there is an ample opportunity for both countries to cooperate. Also, both the countries can improve the standard of living of their populations by cooperating. Lijian expressed an expectation that India will try to increase cooperation with China taking this into account.

Meanwhile, China had expressed an expectation that India should continue with the cooperation ignoring the border dispute. In other words, China expects that India should tolerate the Chinese attempts of intrusion into the Indian territory. India has repeatedly pointed out to China that the unreasonable expectation that India will award this freedom to the Chinese military accepting the importance of bilateral cooperation is ruled out. Instead, India has always told China that if it wants to normalise relations and trade cooperation, peace and camaraderie on the border are necessary. Indian Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla reminded China of the same thing again while speaking at a function organised in New Delhi.

Foreign Secretary Shringla warned that the India-China relations are dependent on mutual trust recognition of issues sensitive for the other and mutual interests. Meanwhile, although the statements coming from China this time are not very different, the foreign ministry is indicating differently. Currently, China has fully supported Russia on the Ukraine issue. In this scenario, China, which shares major trade relations with Russia, could be hit hard by the US sanctions imposed against Russia. Analysts are pointing out that China has a huge trade even with the United States and has a negligible trade volume with Russia in comparison. Therefore, analysts point out that the US sanctions will hit China harder.

China will face a major challenge of choosing between the political, strategic and military cooperation with Russia and the huge trade of $600 billion with the United States. China is visibly reeling under this pressure. In this scenario, increasing cooperation with India and Russia is in the Chinese interest. This is apparently the reason for the soft Chinese stand on the border issue.