77th anniversary of Poonch link-up with India celebrated
The 77th link-up anniversary of Poonch with the rest of India was on Friday celebrated by the Army and civilian population of the border region.
China highly values its ties with India and gives priority to this relationship in its overall diplomacy, according to the new Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong.
“Together, we will keep our relations surging forward like the Yangtze River and the Ganges,” he said in a message he posted on the Chinese Embassy’s website.
Sun, who is yet to present his credentials to President Ram Nath Kovind, said Beijing was willing to join hands with India to strengthen friendship, increase mutual trust and expand cooperation.
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“China and India are important neighbours to each other. Both are time-honoured oriental ancient civilisations, largest developing countries and emerging economies. The relations were not only important for the two countries but for the region and the globe,” he said.
Sun succeeds Luo Zhaohui as Chinese envoy to India. Luo returned to Beijing in May to take over as Vice-Foreign Minister of China. Sun is considered an expert on South Asia, having served as China’s Ambassador to Pakistan from 2013 to 2017.
Diplomatic sources said he has already started making preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India for the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October, possibly in Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is also expected to visit Beijing in August to do the groundwork for President Xi’s India visit as also to attend the second meeting of the India-China high-level mechanism on cultural exchanges and people to people contacts.
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