New Delhi: India and China should learn from each other and there can be competition even within the framework of "mutual cooperation", Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Wednesday.
"China has established a relationship of equilibrium in foreign policy with India. There is plenty of scope for mutual competition within a framework of mutual cooperation," he said.
Aiyar, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and a former Union minister, was speaking at the launch of a book titled "Cinasthana Today - Viewing China from India" written by P S Deodhar.
He said both India and China need to live with peace and learn from each other. "There is scope for us to learn from each other. And for learning we need to live in peace and goodwill."
"The two major thing that people in developing countries need are, one is democracy like in India and development that is there in China. If there is some way in which we can marry these two and manage to get well developed democracy both in China and India then I think the future belongs to us," Aiyar said.
He said in so far of being a democracy, China has something to learn from India.
Talking about the border issue, Aiyar, who was also in Foreign Service, said though both the countries have not resolved the issue there was no possibility of "repetition of 1962".
"Because whatever the differences, agreement on peace and tranquility on the border has not only been maintained but been sustained by uninterrupted and uninterruptable dialogue," he said.
In this context he said India has been doing the same with Pakistan. "We do exactly the same with Pakistan that we don`t resolve our problems but we continue talking in the hope that someday sometime somewhere there will resolve."
Referring to Tibet, he said it remains one troubling issue for India-China relation.
On China-Vietnam problems, he said India doesn`t want to get into the quarrel. "We don`t want to get caught in quarrel" between China and Vietnam.
H E Wang Xuefeng, senior official in Chinese Embassy, Ravi Bhoothalingam, Professor in Chinese Studies in JNU and a number of scholars were present on the occasion.
PTI
