India Seeks Closer Partnership With China Under Astana Consensus - Indian FM

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has said in Parliament on Thursday that the India-China developmental partnership is not only beneficial for the two countries but for the whole region.

New Delhi (Sputnik) — India has said that it would like to strengthen the developmental partnership based on the Astana consensus between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.

"India would like to strengthen its closer developmental partnership with China that was established in the visit to President Xi Jinping to India in September 2014," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said while reacting to Swaraj's statement in Parliament.

"India would like to do so based on the Astana consensus which was reached between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they met on the margins of the SCO on June 8 in Astana," Gopal Baglay added.

The first component of the Astana consensus is that the relations between India and China are significant not only for these two countries but for the region and for the world.

While the second component is that the differences between India and China should be addressed in a manner that they do not become disputes.

"Our approach is to resolve it in a peaceful manner through discussions. There are established mechanisms to address the border issue. As far as the current situation is concerned, I will refer to the second component which is that differences between India and China be handled or addressed in a manner that they do not become disputes. That remains our approach. This is exactly what we have said in the past also," Baglay said.