To Renew the Friendship Across High Mountains and Contribute Asian Wisdom to World Peace and Development
2015-11-06 13:25

On November 6, 2015, the Indian English Newspaper The Hindu published Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao's article "To Renew the Friendship Across High Mountains and Contribute Asian Wisdom to World Peace and Development". The full text is as follows:

 

 

To Renew the Friendship Across High Mountains and Contribute Asian Wisdom to World Peace and Development

It is my pleasure to pay an official visit to India at the invitation of H.E. Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Vice President of the Republic of India and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. I would like to take the opportunity to extend sincere greetings and best wishes to the great people of India.

As an ancient civilization, India has been world-renowned for its profound philosophy and splendid culture, which made great contribution to human development. As an emerging country, India's widely-acclaimed economic growth and social vitality has secured this country an influential position in the future of the world. Past and present glories have come together to lend strength to India's ambitious march towards national prosperity and renewal. On the other side of the Himalayas, the Chinese nation has also written its own chapter in the history of human civilization and created thriving miracles of the East. Throughout history, the Chinese and Indian civilizations have maintained exchanges and learned from each other. With unique wisdom and charm of the East, the two nations have jointly erected powerful pillars for the civilization of the East and contributed their share to world peace and development.

China-India friendship dates back to ancient times. As the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore put it, "China and India are very old and beloved brothers". Over the past 2,000 years and more, there have been numerous tales and legends about the friendly exchanges between our two countries, such as the white horse carrying Buddhist scriptures from India to China, Monk Xuanzang's pilgrimage to the west, and expedition of the Chinese navigator Zheng He. All these are testament to our friendship as good neighbors. The ancient Silk Road bustling with merchants and coaches brought such Chinese and Indian inventions as paper making, sugar making and numbers to the wider world. Chinese and Indians learned from each other, and together drove Asia's progress, setting a fine example of inter-civilizational exchanges.

Since modem times, China and India had gone through similar sufferings and supported each other. We realized national independence and liberation, pioneered the liberation movement of Asia Africa and Latin America, changing the world map of the colonial era once and for all, and strengthened the unity of the Third World countries, In the 1950s, China and India, together with other Asian countries, jointly initiated the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence and turned them into basic norms governing international relations, thus making historic contribution to building a new type of international relations based on equality.

Simultaneous development of China and India is a blessing to the world. In recent decades, inspired by the dream of a strong and prosperous nation, China and India have seized the opportunities of economic globalization and technological revolution and embarked on the fast track of development driven by reform and innovation. Not only have we improved the livelihood of 2.5 billion people, but we have also become twin engines propelling the economic development of Asia and the world beyond. Since the turn of this century, China and India have established and developed the strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity, and explored a way to achieve harmonious co-existence by actively expanding cooperation and effectively managing differences at the same time. China-India relations have become an anchor of regional peace and stability. In recent years, as the two largest developing countries and major emerging economies, our two countries have maintained close communication and coordination, taken an active part in global governance, firmly upheld the common interests of developing countries in major global issues, and made common appeals for building a more just and equitable international order,

China-India win-win cooperation has broad prospects, President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese leaders have met with Prime Minister Modi and other Indian leaders on many occasions, during which they reached important consensus on forging an even closer partnership for development between China and India. This has charted the course for growing the bilateral relationship. President Xi Jinping pointed out that China and India need to become closer cooperation partners for development, for growth and for global strategic coordination. Prime Minister Modi said that China and India are "two bodies, one spirit". The Chinese people now are striving to achieve the two centenary goals and the Chinese dream of great national renewal, while the Indian people are working hard to realize the objective of national revitalization. The Chinese dream and Indian dream are closely connected and complement each other. As the second and ninth largest economies respectively, China and India have a combined GDP of over US$12 trillion and a huge market with one third of the world's population. The Chinese economy has been steadily upgraded while the Indian economy has entered a phase of fast growth. The two countries enjoy significant mutual complementarity and huge potential for cooperation.

China is committed to peace, development and win-win cooperation and adheres to the policies of building friendly relations and partnerships and amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness with its neighbors. We advocate fostering a community of shared future with neighboring countries. In this context, we regard China-India relationship as one of the most important bilateral relationships for us.

— We are ready to work together with India in line with the consensus between our leaders to increase strategic mutual trust, deepen traditional friendship, expand win-win cooperation and work for faster and greater development of China-India relations.

— We are ready to synergize our development strategy with that of India, expand win-win cooperation, take forward our respective national development, and facilitate regional and world development and prosperity with our own development.

— We are ready to renew our friendly exchanges with India to encourage affinity between the two civilizations and create a new boom in learning about each other's culture. This will help revive our ancient inter-civilizational exchanges and mutual learning between China and India on a larger scale and in more areas and contribute more to the progress of human civilization.

Going forward, China and India will continue to be two major forces calling for a multi-polar world and main engines driving Asian and world economic growth. China and India should carry forward oriental wisdom and traditional friendship for closer cooperation. I am convinced that with our joint efforts, both countries will embrace an even brighter future and that we will renew our friendship across the Himalayas, and contribute more Asian wisdom to peace and development of the region and the whole world.

Suggest to a Friend
  Print