China congratulates India PM Modi on election win

China on Wednesday congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his election win, adding it was “ready to work” with its neighbour.

A “healthy and stable China-India relationship is in the common interest of both sides and is also conducive to peace and development in the region and the world,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press conference.

“The Chinese side would like to congratulate” Modi’s BJP party and his National Democratic Alliance, she added.

Modi is facing the prospects of a far tougher-than-expected third term after his party failed to secure an outright majority for the first time since sweeping to power a decade ago.

The release of the results on Tuesday upended conventional wisdom throughout the six-week election that Modi’s Hindu nationalist agenda would power him to a landslide win.

India has been wary of its northern neighbour’s growing military assertiveness and disputes over the two Asian giants’ 3,500-kilometre (2,200-mile) shared frontier have been a perennial source of tension. China claims all of India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, considering it part of Tibet, and the Asian giants fought a full-scale border war in 1962.

“China is ready to work with India to promote the healthy and stable development of relations between the two countries, in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, with an eye to the big picture and a view to the future,” she said.

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AFP

(NAMPA / AFP)