Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong (right) attends a farewell webinar on October 19, 2022. Photo: Courtesy of China's Embassy in India.

 

China and India should bring benefit to the two countries' 2.8 billion people and properly handle divergence and sensitive issues amid positive momentum of the bilateral relations in the current challenging international landscape, said Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong as his more-than-3-year unforgettable tenure came to an end.

"Serving as Chinese Ambassador to India has been an unforgettable period in my life. I cherish all the memories in the past three more years. With your support and joint efforts, friendship btw our two peoples will be evergreen," Sun, who worked as the ambassador, said on Twitter on Saturday.

China and India should look and move forward amid the positive momentum arising among bilateral relations in 2022 under the consensus reached by the two countries' leaders that China and India are each other's opportunities and pose no threat to each other, Sun said at a farewell webinar with Indian friendly organizations and personalities when talking about his understanding of developing China-India relations. 

"Both China and India are facing numerous challenges in the current international landscape and should focus on our own business and find the convergence of interests in state development areas to preserve the well-being and interests of the 2.8 billion people in the two countries," Sun pointed out, saying China and India, the two promising emerging economies both with more than 1 billion people, have huge potential in cooperation in various fields.

Sun also highlighted proper handling of divergence, saying China and India have much greater common interest than divergence and cannot let the latter define or disturb the bilateral relation. "As two ancient eastern civilizations, China and India should explore a new path of peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation for neighboring developing major countries."

China adheres to the neighborhood diplomacy of good neighborliness and partnership, and is willing to deepen friendship, mutual trust and integration of interests with neighboring countries including India, Sun said.

Sun stressed that people-to-people exchanges have always been an important pillar of China-India relations in the past more than 2,000 years of exchanges between the two civilizations, urging the two countries to carry forward the communication between 1.4 billion Chinese people and 1.4 billion Indian people.