PM, Hu open door to trouble-free ties

A 50-minute bilateral meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao here today has opened new possibilities of stronger and trouble-free ties between two of the world’s largest emerging and neighbouring economies.

The two leaders, meeting a day before the BRICS Summit tomorrow, have agreed to establish a working mechanism to handle border affairs. India’s border-related problems with China have remained unresolved for many years, in spite of efforts initiated by the two from time to time.

The new mechanism, which is likely to be headed by officials, will also explore cooperation in border areas in both the countries.

The idea is new and the two sides are still working out the details of the mechanism. But, National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon had no hesitation in agreeing to the suggestion that this was the biggest achievement of Singh’s meeting with Hu this afternoon.

Menon clarified the mechanism would be in addition to the existing dialogue that the special representatives of the two countries were holding to settle boundary disputes. “They would continue,” he said.

Singh set the ball rolling in his opening statement, where he made clear his desire to intensify India’s strategic and economic partnership with China in every possible area, a sentiment that Hu reciprocated in full measure when he offered to find a solution to India’s vexed problem of rising trade deficit with China. In 2010, China’s exports to India were $40 billion, while India’s exports to China were only $20 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $20 billion. In his meeting with Hu, Singh raised the issue of greater market access for Indian pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, engineering goods and information technology services.
 

KEY POINTS

* India, China to set up working mechanism to handle border affairs

* Commit to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015

* Year of the India-China Exchange in 2011 launched

* No mention of security concerns over Chinese investments

Significantly, the Chinese president made no mention of the security concerns periodically raised by the Indian government over investments from China, even though Singh underlined the need for a discussion on promoting cross-border investments.

Senior Indian government officials, however, played down the absence of such concerns arguing that the Chinese would prefer to deal with such issues not at such a high level but at an officials’ forum. On its part, India did not raise the issue of recent instances of Chinese authorities issuing stapled visas to the Indian residents of Jammu & Kashmir.

The “productiveness” of the meeting was also evident in the decision to launch the India-China Exchange programme this year so that greater interaction and contact between the people of the two countries at various levels could get a boost. The two leaders also reiterated their commitment to strengthen bilateral economic relations. Both were keen to reach the two-way trade target to $100 billion by 2015, from the 2010 level of $60 billion.

Singh recalled that his meeting with Hu was the second in recent months. He invited the Chinese President to visit India, an offer Hu accepted. Similarly, the Chinese President invited Singh to visit Beijing and Singh accepted the offer. The dates of the visits are yet to be fixed.