Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has pledged to build trust with India weeks after a border dispute that threatened relations between the two Asian giants.
During a visit to New Delhi on Monday, Li said China wants to intensify cooperation with India, insisting that friendship between the two massive Asian economies is the key to world peace, reports AFP.
“The purpose of my current visit to India is three-fold – to increase mutual trust, to intensify cooperation and to face the future,” Li said.
He stressed the importance Beijing attached to relations with Delhi. “World peace … cannot be a reality without strategic trust between India and China,” he added.
Li’s visit follows a flare up in tensions last month after Chinese troops crossed the Line of Actual Control into Indian-claimed territory in the Himalayan region, triggering a three-week standoff. Both sides eventually pulled back their troops.
Analysts warned that China could become more assertive in such disputes. “As Beijing’s new leadership is making a concerted effort to challenge India’s territorial assertions, India will have to plan new attempts to bridge the perceptional distances between these two huge neighbors,” said Sujit Dutta, a Chinese expert at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia University.