Amid border row, Chinese city invites India to expo

Organisers of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo to be held in the city of Dongguan from September 21 to 24 sought India's active participation at a promotional conference here late on Monday evening.

"China and India are closely tied through the Himalayas," Chen Qingsong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Dongguan Municipal Government.

"We thank you for your support to the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road International Expo," Chen said while inviting Indian exhibitors to the 2017 edition of the event.

From 13 Indian participants in the event's first edition in 2014, the figure rose to 104 in 2016, he said, and added that in 2016, Indian pavilion drew a lot of attention for its tourism exhibition. Chen's comments came in the backdrop of Indian and Chinese troops being engaged in a tense standoff along the Sikkim sector of the international border.

Soldiers of both countries came to a face-to-face position in the Doklam area of Bhutan where a large construction contingent of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered on June 16 to apparently build a road there.

Both India and Bhutan have said that China was trying to unilaterally change a status quo that has been maintained at the Bhutan-China-India trijunction.

Amid the current border standoff in the Sikkim sector of the India-China border, a top Chinese official has allayed fears of India-China economic ties being affected. "Both India and China enjoy long cooperation as our lands are connected," Li Rongrong, Second Secretary in the Economic and Commercial Counsellor's Office of the Chinese Embassy in India said. Li said Chinese investments in India rose from $219 crore in 2000 to $7,000 crore in 2016.