China’s Xi offers more help to India in message to Modi

BEIJING — Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday offered additional assistance to India in battling the coronavirus outbreak ravaging the country, putting aside a simmering rivalry and tensions along their disputed border. He said China is willing to provide additional support and assistance because “Mankind is a community of common destiny sharing weal and woe and only through unity and cooperation can the nations of the world ultimately overcome the pandemic.” “Under the leadership of the Indian government, the people of India will certainly overcome the pandemic,” Xi added. India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jayashankar had a phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and they agreed to keep transport corridors and cargo flights open, an Indian statement said. Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the Chinese public, the Chinese Red Cross, local governments, NGOs and enterprises have all “taken actions and managed to raise much-needed anti-epidemic supplies for the Indian side and send them to the Indian people as soon as possible.” Along with the ventilators and oxygen concentrators, more than 15,000 sets of monitors and nearly 3,800 tons of medical supplies and medications have been shipped to India, Wang said. Wang also said Chinese airlines are operating cargo flights to India and authorities are accelerating customs clearance and transport for supplies such as liquid oxygen storage tanks and oxygen generators from several Chinese cities.