China's envoy to India has declared the countries friends today, not enemies, in a bid to smooth ties ruffled by an Indian minister's description of their 1962 border war as a "Chinese invasion."
Ambassador Sun Yuxi played down the row between Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chinese Consul General Song Deheng at a seminar on India's defence preparedness.
"Whatever happened in the past is history ... it will never happen again," the Chinese ambassador was quoted as saying by The Hindu newspaper.
Sun added that India and China were now "friends, not enemies, partners, not rivals," the daily said.
Mukherjee told the seminar India's defence production underwent major changes after the "Chinese invasion" in 1962.
"We cannot keep our eyes shut ... China has solved border disputes with 10 neighbours except India and Bhutan," he said.
His remarks drew a strong reaction from the consul general, who said the 1962 war between the countries was in self-defence. Mukherjee said later he had been misunderstood.
The row over their mountainous, largely unmarked frontier through the Himalayas, from Kashmir in the west to near Myanmar in the east, led to the brief, bitter conflict that left ties between them strained.
A formal cease-fire line has yet to be established but the border has remained largely peaceful thanks to agreements signed in 1993 and 1996.
The verbal duel comes weeks before special envoys appointed by the two governments in 2003 are to meet to try to resolve the dispute.
India says China is occupying 38,000 square kilometres (14,670 square miles) of Indian territory in Kashmir it says was illegally ceded to Beijing by Pakistan in the 1950s. Beijing, in turn, claims the remote Indian-administered state of Arunachal Pradesh.
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