'XI visit will set tone of Modi's US trip'

Chinese President Xi Jinping's India visit will set the tone of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming trip to the US, according to Jagat Shah, secretary general of the China-India Trade and Investment Centre.

Coming ahead of Modi's first summit meetings with President Barack Obama in Washington Sep 29 and 30, Xi's India visit was "very important", he said.

"It will set the tone of Modiji's visit to USA in terms of negotiations on several fronts, including WTO agreements on food security," Shah told IANS.

"Besides, the coming closer of BRICS nations and BRICS bank will have an impact on Indo-US talks," he said.

"During this visit, USA may just observe the tone and tenor of Modiji's approach and strategy and then calibrate their strategy accordingly," he said.

Shah is on a US tour as part of a Vibrant Gujarat 2015 delegation to promote participation from American corporates in the event Jan 11-13 in Gandhinagar, capital of Modi's home state.

Asked how he looked at some analysts' view that US overtures to India were a way of countering China, Shah said: "Every country plays its diplomatic cards and strategies based on its own interest."

"USA or China or Japan may play whatever card, but India under the leadership of Modiji should play along in only those areas which are in the interest of India. We need to take the best from all and worse from none," he said.

"That's Chanakya neeti."

On the prospects of China-India trade in the context of Xi's India visit, Shah said: "Presently the trade is imbalanced as China exports $40 billion to India and India exports $25 billion to China."

"Besides, Indian exports consist of raw materials like raw cotton, iron ore, bauxite, and Chinese exports are of value-added finished products like power and telecom equipment," he said.

"China needs to allow Indian pharma and IT exports to balance the trade between India and China," Shah said.

"Besides, the industrial parks which Chinese have agreed to set up in India will be a good step to reduce this trade gap."

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)