China bids farewell to Indian envoy with hopes for easing in border tensions
- As Vikram Misri prepares to leave his Beijing posting, both sides agreed there was a ‘silver lining’ for bilateral ties
- Chinese foreign minister warns against the two countries exhausting each other, as India takes first delivery of Russian missiles
Wang was speaking at a virtual meeting with outgoing Indian ambassador to China Vikram Misri on Monday. Both expressed hope that tensions would ease on the shared border in the Himalayas.
“We should build mutual understanding, not misjudgments, we should take a long-term perspective and remain undisturbed by temporal things, and we should help each other succeed and not exhaust each other,” Wang said.
“When we can build trust, even the Himalaya Mountains cannot stop our friendship but once trust is lost, not even a wide span of terrain is enough for us to come together.”
According to the official Chinese readout of the meeting, Wang also agreed with Misri’s statement of seeing “silver lining” in the two countries’ ties.
The Indian embassy in Beijing reported Misri as saying that even though certain challenges since last year had overpowered the vast opportunities in the relationship, he was “hopeful that with continued communication at all levels – political, diplomatic and military, the two sides would be able to resolve the current difficulties and take the relationship forward in a positive direction”.
Misri is expected to end his three-year term by the end of December. His successor is yet to be announced by New Delhi.