*BEIJING – *China today distanced itself from its envoy’s comments on theidea of trilateral cooperation between India, China and Pakistan under theaegis of the SCO, but underlined the importance of strengthening ofdialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad to improve mutual trust.
Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui on Monday endorsed the idea oftrilateral cooperation between India, China and Pakistanlink>underthe aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), saying it could”in the future” help resolve bilateral issues between New Delhi andIslamabad and help maintain peace.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, when asked about Mr Luo’scomments, said both India and Pakistan are China’s friends and neighbours.
“We are willing to conduct relations with all our neighbours includingPakistan and India to strengthen our cooperation for better development andstability in this region.
“We also hope India, Pakistan can strengthen their dialogue to improvemutual trust in their bilateral relations. This is in the interest of theregional countries,” he said.
Asked whether China is distancing from Mr Luo’s remarks, Mr Geng said “whatI said represents the official position of the Chinese side”.
He also declined to answer a question on the Chinese Embassy erasingenvoy’s comments from the transcript posted on the website.
AdvertisementThe Chinese envoy to India had also said that bilateral ties between Indiaand China can’t take the strain of another Dokalam episode and emphasisedthe need to find a “mutually acceptable solution” on the boundary issuethrough a meeting of Special Representatives.
Mr Luo said “some Indian friends” had suggested trilateral cooperationcomprising India, China and Pakistan under the aegis of the SCO, which wasa “very constructive idea”.