Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday said that he hoped India had learnt lessons from the Doklam standoff, and would not repeat a similar situation in the future. “The trespassing personnel and equipment from India were all withdrawn to the Indian side of the border around 2.30 pm on Monday,” said Wang while addressing the media in Beijing. “That brought the face-off to an end and that is the basic fact. We hope the Indian side will learn lessons from this incident and prevent similar things from happening again.”
Wang’s comments come two days after India had said that the disengagement was “mutual and simultaneous”. “The two sides went back to their positions almost simultaneously, following standard operating procedures of withdrawal,” an unidentified government official had said. However, he did not reveal which side backed off first.
However, Wang said it was natural for two big countries like India and China to have problems. “What is important is that we put these differences in an appropriate place and under the principle of mutual respect, following the consensus of our leaders, we need to handle and manage them properly,” he added.
The foreign minister said there was a lot of scope for cooperation between the two countries. “We hope China and India will join hands and work together for the rejuvenation of Asia, and for the development of our region and contribute our share to greater development,” Wang added. He made the comments a day after the Ministry of External Affairs said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Brics summit in China from September 3 to 5. Wang, however, did not confirm if Modi and Xi would hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit.
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