India can be aloof to China's rapid rise at its own peril:EAM

New Delhi, Jan 7 (PTI) India can remain aloof only at
its own peril to the challenges and opportunities presented by
China's rapid ascendancy, External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna said on Thursday.

Emphasising the growing relevance of China to India,
"whether in the precincts of the government, company
boardrooms or in the markets streets, Krishna said "we can be
aloof to the unfolding new challenges and opportunities
presented by our largest neighbour's rapid ascendancy only at
our own peril".
Acknowledging that "it is not possible to have a
perfect congruence of interests" between India and China, the
Minister, however, said India does not view China or China's
development as a "threat".
"We recognise that competition and cooperation can
overlap as it is not possible to have a perfect congruence of
interests between the two nations.
"Such competition or lack of cooperation must not be
misunderstood as antagonism. Our differences when they exist,
must be handled with dialogue and diplomacy," he said.
On the boundary issue between the two countries, he
said the "complexity" of Sino-Indian relations over unresolved
boundary issues have not prevented mutually beneficial
cooperation in a number of areas and talks to solve the vexed
issue were on the right track.
"We need to recognise the complexity of relations
posed by an unresolved boundary question. This is naturally an
emotive issue for us," Krishna said while releasing two books
on Sino-Indian relations.

Krishna said non-settlement of the boundary question
has not prevented mutually beneficial and functional
cooperation between India and China in a number of areas.
"...peace and tranquility has been preserved in the
long India-China border for more than two decades and the
plethora of Confidence Building Measures put in place to
reduce or eliminate the perception of threat from each other
has worked satisfactorily well," he said.
On the economic front, Krishna said the discourse on
China was central to the ongoing process of Asia's economic
integration and emergence.
"China's sustained eye-catching growth over three
decades and our own high growth in relatively recent times
have largely pulled the centre of gravity of the world economy
to this part of the world," he said.
He said India and China, because of their size,
domestic market and unsaturated demand, hold promises for
continued economic growth and show a way out of recession
worldwide.
"We have mutual interest in each other's prosperity as
our trade statistics and investment trends eloquently
indicate," he said.
He also underlined the need for more people-to-people
contact between the two countries. "Knowledge and scholarship
of China in our country needs to be augmented to attain the
maximum benefit from the rise of China," he said. PTI SPC
SKT