Proposal a ‘personal opinion’: MEA
India should join a “trilateral” mechanism with China and Pakistan, the Chinese Ambassador to India said on Monday, suggesting that the idea for a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) had come from Indian officials or experts.
“Security cooperation is one of the three pillars of the SCO. Some Indian friends suggested that China, India and Pakistan have some kind of trilateral cooperation under the SCO,” Ambassador Luo Zhaohui said in his first public comments since the SCO summit in Qingdao, China, last week. Mr. Luo’s proposal came in his keynote address at a seminar organised by the Embassy of China here.
‘A personal view’
The Ministry of External Affairs dismissed the startling statement, calling it his personal opinion. “We have not received any such suggestion from the Chinese government. We consider the statement as the personal opinion of the Ambassador. Matters related to India-Pakistan relations are purely bilateral in nature and have no scope for involvement of any third country.”
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