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As India seeks early troop disengagement in remaining areas in Ladakh after Pangong Tso, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday reiterated Beijing’s position that the border issue was not the “whole story” of the bilateral relationship and the two countries need to create “enabling conditions” to resolve the dispute and move on.

Speaking at his annual press conference, while he said India and China were partners and not rivals, Wang again blamed India for the border flare-up last year and called for the countries to manage disputes properly.

Responding to a query on ties with India, Wang claimed the “rights and wrongs” of what happened at the border were clear and “so are the stakes involved”, suggesting the two sides move on. In his recent interaction with Wang, foreign minister S Jaishankar had, however, made the point that ties could not be reset as long as there were tensions on the border caused by aggressive Chinese actions.

“The two sides need to help each other to succeed instead of undercutting each other. We should intensify cooperation instead of harbouring suspicion,” Wang said.

“We are committed to settling the boundary dispute through dialogue. At the same time, we are resolved to safeguard our sovereign rights,” he added, as he refrained from making any direct comment on disengagement and de-escalation efforts in eastern Ladakh.

Wang had a telephone conversation with Jaishankar recently in which the latter had emphasised that with the completion of disengagement in the Pangong area, the two sides should move quickly to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

Wang said the world expected China and India to safeguard their common interests and advance multipolarity in the world. “On many important issues, our positions are the same or close due to similar national realities, therefore China and India are friends and partners, not threats or rivals,” he said.

Wang said it was the responsibility of both sides to solidify the existing consensus, strengthen dialogue and communication and improve the various management mechanisms to jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

On how China looks to move forward its relations with India after the border standoff, Wang said, “Together we can bring greater benefits to the 2.7 billion people in China and India, make greater contributions to the advent of the Asian Century.” He added that the China-India relationship was essentially about how the world’s two largest countries get along and pursue development and rejuvenation together.