India called on to treat education ties fairly

India should treat Confucius Institutes and its higher education cooperation with China objectively and fairly, and avoid politicizing normal bilateral cooperation, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi said on Tuesday, after reports that India would review local institutes.

The statement, citing media reports, said "the Ministry of Education of India has decided to review Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms jointly established by China's Confucius Institute and seven Indian universities and colleges".

Also to be reviewed are "54 memoranda of understanding on interschool cooperation signed between Indian and Chinese higher education institutions", it said.

"All Confucius Institutes were established by the Chinese and Indian universities after signing legally binding cooperation agreements in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, friendly consultation, equality and mutual benefit," said Ji Rong, the embassy's spokeswoman and counselor, in the statement.

The institutes also were set up on the premise that India had applied voluntarily and met conditions for running such institutes, Ji said, calling for India to maintain the healthy and stable development of bilateral cultural exchanges.

The demand for Chinese language instruction is growing in India as the two countries develop ever closer economic, trade and cultural exchanges, Ji said, adding that they have cooperated on the Confucius Institute Project for more than a decade.

The Indian education community has generally recognized that Confucius Institutes have played an important role in promoting Chinese language teaching in India and its people-to-people exchanges with China, Ji said.

Also on Tuesday, China said the two countries should always deal with border issues properly and avoid escalations of their differences, in response to recent comments made by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Bilateral ties are "not only hugely consequential for both nations, but for the world", Jaishankar said in an interview with The Times of India.

China hopes India will work with it and take effective measures to maintain the overall situation of bilateral ties, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily news conference.