India-China friendship can change world: Yeo

KOLKATA - If India and China cooperate and resolve bilateral disputes in a peaceful manner, Asia will be completely transformed and with it the rest of the world, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said Monday.

He was speaking at a seminar on Tagore’s dream for good relations between India and China, organised by the Netaji Research Bureau here.

Yeo noted that the re-emergence of India and China on the world stage has already changed the shape of global politics and economics.

Yeo said: “In China, Tagore’s works have been the most translated after Shakespeare. The chill due to the Sino-Indian war is gradually thawing.”

He termed the border row between India and China as a “dispute issue” and said that the media in the two countries are “sensationalising the matters”.

“Leaders of both the countries were mindful of the necessity of good bilateral relations for each other to develop. But much has been made of the rivalry between China and India in recent times, some of which no doubt is in the interest of third parties,” he said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a ‘Session on South East Asia, ASEAN and India’, Yeo said India needs to increase its number of officials in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to deepen bilateral relations.

India needs to do much more for the relationship to grow much deeper, said Yeo.

When asked whether India is yet to match up with the amount of influence China has in the Southeast Asian region, Yeo said: China has more capability in this regard and probably a deeper relationship with more ASEAN countries.