On Board Special Aircraft: The external affairs minister, Salman Khurshid, who was on way back from Myanmar after a three-day visit said that China served as a constant reminder that India has to put its economy in order.
“China is also a constant reminder to us that we got to put our economy at the right track. We can pretend that China is not there. But China is there and unless we put our economy on the right track it is going to overwhelm us completely. So China is a major concern and Pakistan, in a significant way (is a concern) but not a major concern. Because Pakistan has the ability to ruin the game for us therefore we have to keep Pakistan also in focus.....,” the minister said.
“There are linkages also between China and Pakistan and that is important. But the linkages again is less important dimension,” Khurshid said. Asked about the ‘pinpricks’ China keeps giving to India on territory issue, he said, “I really wish they do not happen but they do happen.”
“We have learnt to live with them. We have learnt to manage them. We have learnt to control them. But today these are not restricted to what was our real problem i.e issue of the border. Today they are coming elsewhere in multilateral situation. We don’t want to be drawn into any dispute vis-a-vis China because we want to look at the positive as far as possible,” the minister said.
He said India should engage with China, grow with China as was decided in 1988 during late Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to Beijing and added that India was getting signals from China that emerging young leadership also wanted to go on the same path.
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