The so-called “commandments”, which he spelt out at a seminar here on Thursday, will supplement the five principles of peaceful coexistence, or Panchsheel, formulated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and China’s Zhou Enlai in the 1950s, which have been in vogue for the past 56 years.
Mr Zhang spoke of enhancing mutual trust, improving economic cooperation, expanding people-to-people ties, strengthening cooperation in multilateral forums, properly addressing each other’s concerns and properly handling public opinion.
He dwelt at some length on the last two, which have an immediate resonance here because of recent spats over the issuance of “stapled” visas for Indian citizens from Jammu and Kashmir, border transgressions and belligerent statements on Arunachal Pradesh.
The ambassador said India and China “need urgently to enhance their mutual trust” and “appropriately manage outstanding issues through mutual consultations on an equal footing and in a spirit of mutual understanding”. He noted that “two countries should provide correct guidance to public opinion and avoid a of war of words”, a view that was shared by India’s national security adviser Shivshankar Menon.
In his keynote address, Mr Menon said “neither India nor China can afford misperceptions” arising from “the shrill and over-excitable commentary on the relationship that has appeared in both countries in the last year or so.”
The remarks by Mr Menon and Mr Zhang came on a day when India discussed China and Asian security with a visiting US delegation led by US assistant secretary of state for East Asia Kurt Campbell.
Mr Menon suggested India and China had reached a stage in their relationship when they can “actively consider together the next steps”, such as a detailed framework to resolve the border dispute in a manner that is politically feasible for both leaderships.
He said: “India and China both cooperate and compete at the same time because of their interests and how they perceive the balance of power. We have also shown through practice that our bilateral relations are too important to be affected by our relations with any third country.”
External affairs minister S.M. Krishna will visit China from April 5 to 8. In Beijing, he will flag off the celebrations to mark the 60th anniversary of relations and inaugurate the Festival of India. President Pratibha Patil is also scheduled to visit China later this year.
Ramesh Ramachandran