India-China relationship complex, but has great future: S Jaishankar

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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit to Moscow, has said ties with China have great future. The minister also urges Russia to look at the Indo Pacific concept.

Speaking at the Valdai club in Moscow on Tuesday, Jaishankar said, "With China, it is a complex relationship but I will argue in many ways, it is a relationship with a great future. China is among our top two trading partners today. We deal with China on a whole range of issues."

"We discuss everything under the sun with China, we have an annual informal summit at the leadership level. There is understanding, certainly on our part that India and China have to get along to realise the Asian century. We have issues of difference with China including a boundary dispute. our effort is to sit down and solve it."

Later this year India and China will hold the second informal summit in India. In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met four times starting with the famous first informal summit in Wuhan. This year they met on two occasions, first on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek and then at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.

Elaborating the Indo Pacific concept, which was the main theme of discussions at the Valdai club, EAM said, it is a concept that has grown out of the era of convergence.

Hoping Russia will have its own "version of Indo-pacific", Jaishankar said, "All interested powers look at it with an open mind, treat the Indo Pacific as part of the changing world and look at it as an old concept that has found a new relevance and join the debate".

Adding, "There is an Indo Pacific message in Vladivostok".

EAM will be meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday and talks will be focused on the upcoming visit of PM Modi to Vladivostok for the eastern economic forum in the first week of September.

Asked if Indo Pacific is an attempt to contain China by a Russian journalist, he said, "Containment is part of your history, it is not part of mine. You have to get over that cold war mindset. That era is gone. You are in a multipolar era."

On the first day, EAM unveiled a Gandhi statue at the Indian Embassy premises on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.