China needs stability with India and wants to ensure that New Delhi does not become part of any alliance aimed at Beijing, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, former adviser to the Chinese government, has said.
He also pointed to the personal relationship between Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi. The Chinese President mentioned during the bilateral meeting that the two leaders had met 21 times and reached several important agreements that had helped guide relations. He said bilateral trade is now around $130 billion, with about $110 billion comprising India’s imports from China. India’s exports to China are less than $20 billion, he said, adding that the current trade pattern is not sustainable in the long term.
Speaking to NDTV’s Shiv Aroor as Chinese President Xi Jinping met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, Kuhn said it is in China’s interest to have a stable relationship with India. “The relationship between India and China is perhaps the second most important bilateral relationship in the world after the China-US relationship,” Kuhn said. Kuhn said the India-China relationship could become the most important bilateral relationship in the world in the second half of the 21st century, after the China-US relationship.
