Elephant', dragon' can co-exist, says China
New Delhi: Notwithstanding the current unease in Sino-India relations, China on Thursday said “sound and stable” development of ties in recent years has proved that the “dragon” and the “elephant” can join hands and peacefully co-exist.
“Once, predictions about our future relations dwelled on ‘rivalry between the dragon and the elephant’. However, the sound and stable development of bilateral relations in recent years has proved that the ‘dragon’ and the ‘elephant’ can join hands to dance together,” minister counsellor of the Chinese Embassy, Cheng Guangzhong, said on Thursday. The conciliatory tone comes ahead of bilateral talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to take place on Saturday ahead of the BRICS Summit in Goa on Sunday. This also comes in the wake of the recent fourth edition of the India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue that was held in New Delhi October 7 on several economic and infrastructural issues including high-speed railways on the Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore, Delhi-Nagpur and the Delhi-Chennai sectors.
“The two sides reviewed achievements in areas such as feasibility study of raising speed of existing railways study of high-speed railway. The two sides also reached consensus on the next steps. China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group CO. LTD has officially delivered the interim final feasibility study report on the Chennai-Bangalore-Mysore railway upgradation project to India High-speed Railway Company. After further modification and improvement of the report (if any), the two sides will discuss further on cooperation and research on project implementation, including design consulting, building construction and project financing so as to promote cooperation and achieve concrete results,” the official minutes of the meeting stated.