The Hindu : Front Page : India, China have strategic ties: Ambassador Zhang Yan

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India, China have strategic ties: Ambassador Zhang Yan

Special Correspondent

“Both countries have to work together to tackle terrorism”

— Photo : N. Sridharan

Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan (second from right) and his wife Chen Wangxia looking at a photograph at Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy’s residence in Chennai on Saturday. V.S. Chandralekha, Tamil Nadu president of the party, is at left.

CHENNAI: The relationship between China and India has been growing very fast. It has come to a point where a strategic relationship has been established between the two countries, Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan said on Saturday.

Talking to reporters after meeting Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy at his residence here, Mr. Zhang, who is on a four-day visit to Tamil Nadu, said that in recent years there had been frequent high-level visits between the two countries.

“We will see that it is continued in future.” The volume of trade between China and India had also gone up. Every year, a large number of people from both countries visited each other.

He complimented Dr. Swamy, whom he described as an “old friend of China” for organising a discussion on ‘Sino-India Relations and the U.S.’ at Kochi last year. When Dr. Swamy was in charge of economic affairs, China and India had signed important agreements.

Mr. Zhang said some countries were talking about the performance of China. “We are doing quite a good job”; but the country had still a long way to go. Mr. Zhang said India and China had to work together to combat terrorism. “We are also facing threats from different sources.” A peaceful and stable environment was required for economic development. Both the countries had to work together on the issue of tackling the terrorist menace.

The Ambassador said he was visiting Tamil Nadu for the first time. He is to open a Chinese Language Centre at Vellore in the next couple of days. There was a growing number of Indians learning Chinese.

About Chennai, he said it was a very open city and the people here were open-minded. The economy was good and the environment was also nice. More and more industries were also coming up.

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