New York: Describing the recent verbal spat between China and India as "irritants," Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said the two countries shared a healthy relationship and minor issues should not be "blown out of proportion".
"I think it’s important that everyone scales down a little bit the temperature. It's not as if there is any substantive reason for hostilities between our countries," Tharoor told journalists in New York.
India and China exchanged verbal volleys earlier this month over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing considers a disputed region. However, Tharoor played down the controversy, saying the fresh border skirmishes were "irritants" and relations between the Asian neighbours should be viewed in a broader context.
"It is a relationship which has featured so much development and trade that China is now our number one trading partner in manufactured goods," Tharoor said.
He pointed out that as many as 7,000 Indians were studying in China and Indian companies like Infosys were hiring Chinese workers to work for them in India.
"The world is large enough for both India and China to fulfill the needs of their people and to be of service to humanity," he said.
"If you look at the nuts and bolts of our daily interaction on economics we have Indian companies that have opened branches in Shanghai," he said.
Earlier this month, China protested to Singh's Arunachal visit and also expressed displeasure at Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama's scheduled visit to the state next month.
China's leading state-run newspapers, including People's Daily, have published editorials slamming the Indian media for the recent rise in tensions and for hyping border disputes.
Tharoor said he had a cordial exchange with the Deputy Permanent Representative of China in the UN, Liu Zhenmin, on the day such an editorial was published.
"I said this sort of thing should not be happening between our countries," Tharoor noted, indicating that the higher echelons of power on both sides did not want to see the situation worsening.
"He (Zhenmin) went out of his way to be warm and friendly and to say how much he appreciated my presence and the relations with India and I made it a point to say that we should put certain things behind us," the Minister added.
Commenting on the Chinese objections to the PM's visit to Arunachal, Tharoor said, "Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of the territory of India and any Indian citizen going to Arunachal Pradesh is not the business of any third country".
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