India, China celebrate 70th anniversary of ties amid COVID-19 pandemic

The “Wuhan Spirit” was conspicuous in the absence on Wednesday, when the leaders of India and China exchanged greetings on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had an “informal summit” at Wuhan in central China in April 2018 to bring New Delhi’s relations with Beijing back on track after the setback caused by the military stand-off at Doklam in western Bhutan the previous year; the leaders and diplomats of the two nations never failed to invoke “Wuhan Spirit” whenever they had to speak about the bonhomie between the two neighbours.

But with Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province of China, now more known around the world as the “Ground Zero” of the COVID-19 pandemic, the leaders of the two nations avoided referring to it even as they greeted each other on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

New Delhi and Beijing had planned a series of events to mark the occasion. They, however, had to postpone all such events, with both the nations – along with the rest of the world – grappling with the pandemic.

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“India and China are two ancient civilizations, with a long history of mutually beneficial exchanges over centuries,” Modi wrote to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. “Today,” he added, “we are two large developing countries and emerging economies who are increasingly playing an important role in the global landscape. As such, good relations between India and China are conducive not only for our respective countries but are also important from the perspective of peace, stability, and prosperity of our region and the world.”

Modi also referred to the COVID-19 outbreak in his message to Li and underlined that the pandemic was “a reminder” of the “interconnected nature” of the world and the need to adopt “truly global response to it”. Li wrote to Modi that China was ready to join hands with India to build on the momentum created by this 70th anniversary (of the establishment of diplomatic relations) to work for new progress in strategic and cooperative partnership between the two nations.

Xi also sent a message to President Ram Nath Kovind, noting that India and China had established a strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity and were working to build a closer developmental partnership. Kovind wrote to Xi that India and China had made considerable progress especially in the last few years in enhancing bilateral engagement in a number of areas, including political, economic and people-to-people ties.