India wants cooperative ties with China: Menon

NEW DELHI - India wants cooperative ties with China, said National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday.

Participating in a FICCI-organised Sino-Indian interaction, Menon said: “We want a cooperative relation with China , we want to insure that as we face big issues which are coming up on the stream that we do it in a cooperative manner so that we can nogotiate solutions to the big problem of our times and I think that’s exactly what we see in the relationship with china.”

“China is our biggest neighbour and as far as our relationship with China is concerned , its clear we have an overriding strategic interest in making this relationship grow in a healthy manner,” he added.

“We want to transform India,anything comes in the way, we will try and avoid that,” Menon said.

He further described China as one of India’s major trading partners.

“We have managed to bring the relationship a long way forward in the last few years. We have strong elements of potential instability in the relationship and I think both sides recognize it. We also have sensitivities, both of us, on Tibet, on J and K. The question is how skilled we are to manage it,” Menon said.

“I don’t believe two states with 3000 years of state craft could not manage it. I think best word to describe the situation is general non-alignment. I think, in that situation, I don’t see our relationship with the US affecting our relationship with China and vice versa,” the National Security Adviser said.

He added: “That’s not a calculation or choice we have to make. This is not a binary world with a zero sum game between all major powers. That’s a big change we see today.” (ANI)