NEW DELHI : China’s envoy to India Luo Zhaohui informally pitched a summit among Pakistan, India and China on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to improve regional relations.

“Some Indian friends suggested that Pakistan, India and China may have some kind of trilateral summit on the sidelines of SCO..it’s a very constructive idea,” said Luo, at a seminar in New Delhi titled “Beyond Wuhan: How Far and Fast Can China-India Relations Go”. The title of the seminar referred to the meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had in Wuhan, China in April. Luo said China, Russia and Mongolia had a similar summit, so he sees no reason why Pakistan, India, and China can’t. He added that peace along the borders is in the interests of all nations. “We cannot stand another Doklam incident.

Let’s make a joint effort to maintain peace along the border,” he said referring to last year’s 73-day-long border standoff at the India-China-Bhutan trijunction. Such disputes, Luo said, need a mutually acceptable solution. “We need to control, manage and narrow differences through expanding cooperation. The boundary question was left over by history. We need to find a mutual acceptable solution through Special Representatives’ Meeting while adopting confidence building measures,” he added.  “We need to control, manage and narrow differences through expanding cooperation. The boundary question was left over by history. We need to find a mutual acceptable solution through Special Representatives’ Meeting while adopting confidence building measures,” Lou said.

“Sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, negotiate a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, enhance connectivity and work for early harvest on boundary issues,” he explained.

Sign a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, negotiate a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, enhance connectivity and work for early harvest on boundary issues. In connection with trade, Luo said China will import more sugar, non-Basmati rice and high-quality medicines from India to reduce trade imbalance.

“A new bilateral trade target has been set for $100 billion by 2022,” he said. “We would also like to negotiate a bilateral trade arrangement with #India to expand trade relations. We may encourage economic cooperation on major projects such as new industrial parks and high-speed railway,” Lou added.

Last but not least, Luo stressed people-to-people exchanges to enhance friendship and mutual understanding.

“We should give full play to high-level people-to-people & cultural exchange mechanism to enhance exchanges in fields of movie, sports, tourism, museum, youth.  We will continue promote religious exchanges, arrange pilgrims by Indian Yatris to KailashManasarovar in China’s Tibet.”

Earlier this month, China accepted New Delhi’s offer of an informal summit in India as both the sides signed two MoUs during the meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the SCO summit that was held in China’s Qingdao.

That was the second meeting in three months between the two leaders. In April, Modi and Xi met for the first time since the Doklam border crisis in what the Chinese state media described as a “surprise diplomatic initiative”. Modi’s two-day visit to Wuhan in China was billed as an “informal” summit with President Xi.

At the SCO meet this month, XI and Modi said they agreed to “cherish” the “positive momentum” generated by their Wuhan meeting and implement the “important consensus” reached at the summit.