The Ministry of External Affairs termed the proposal a personal opinion of the Ambassador.
While presenting his four-point vision for the future of China-India cooperation, China’s Ambassador to New Delhi Luo Zhaohui on Monday created a flutter by proposing a trilateral summit between India, Pakistan and China.
Though he attributed this idea coming from “some Indian friends”, sources said that Beijing has been pressing for such cooperation to discuss India’s participation in Belt and Road initiative, one of President Xi Jinping’s most ambitious foreign and economic policies. “Maybe not now, but in the future, that is the great idea,” he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs termed the proposal a personal opinion of the Ambassador. MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the Chinese government has never pout such suggestion on table. “Matters related to India-Pakistan relations are purely bilateral in nature and have no scope for involvement of any third country,” he said.
Congress condemned the suggestion, even charging that the Chinese envoy was not aware of India-Pakistan paradigm. Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said it was a trap to force India to abandon bilateralism on issues with Pakistan. “Our stand has been that issues between India and Pakistan are bilateral in nature. This is the spirit of the Simla agreement and the unanimous resolution adopted by the parliament in 1994,” he said.
India is engaged in a trilateral mechanism involving Russia and China. India is also involved in another trilateral along with Japan and the United States. Other trilaterals in the region include China, Japan and South Korea and China, Mongolia and Russia, whose leaders meet periodically to discuss common concerns.
Addressing a seminar titled ‘Beyond Wuhan: How Far and Fast Can China-India Relations Go’, the Chinese envoy reflected the positive turn in relations with India following the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President in Wuhan in April. “My four-point vision for the future of China-India cooperation is to sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, negotiate a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, enhance connectivity and work for early harvest on boundary issues,” he said. He also presented the ‘5Cs’ that China considers the ‘fields of priority’ for the progress of relations between India and China: communication, cooperation, contacts, coordination, and control.
On boundary question, he said “both countries need to find a mutual acceptable solution through Special Representatives’ Meeting while adopting confidence building measures. He also pitched for increased strategic communications and frank dialogue between the two Asian giants, and attempt to convert the present bonhomie between Modi and Xi at a wider people-to-people level. The envoy said his country “cannot stand another Doklam incident”. “We cannot stand another Doklam, we need to control, manage, narrow differences through expanding cooperation.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}