BackIndia visit has helped expand strategic trust: Li Keqiang
China and India are not a threat to each other, says Li, acknowledges irritants in bilateral ties including border dispute
Premium(Sameer Joshi/Mint)
New Delhi/Mumbai: Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang said on Tuesday that his visit to India had helped expand “strategic trust" between the Asian neighbours, weeks after a tense border standoff had threatened to upset the schedule of his first overseas trip as premier.
Li said China and India “are not a threat to each other" and neither were they trying to “contain" each other, but he acknowledged irritants in bilateral ties with India including the border dispute.
Before flying to Mumbai for the second leg of his three-day visit, Li outlined his vision for a future India-China relationship that included a “handshake" across the Himalayas that separate the two countries.
“We are one-third of the world’s total population and our interactions attract the world. Without doubt, China-India relations are most important global relations," he said.
Li expressed concern in Mumbai that the bilateral trade of around $70 billion between India and China was only as much as that of China and any other mid-sized country. Although China was speeding up its investment in other nations, its investment in India remained limited.
Li also spoke of the Tata Group and its information technology arm, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, whose Mumbai office he visited, as a shining example of the competitive edge that Indian products and services had for a market like China.
Commenting on the trade deficit between the two countries of around $41 billion, which tilts in China’s favour, Li said China doesn’t seek a trade surplus with any country, including India.
Bilateral trade between India and China rose from $2.09 billion in 2001-02 to a high of $75.59 billion in 2011-12, declining to $67.83 billion during 2012-13, according to Indian commerce ministry data.
Li said in New Delhi that China was willing to facilitate greater access to Indian goods. His government will “support Chinese enterprises to increase investments in India and help Indian products have access to Chinese markets," he said.
“The Chinese commerce minister will have to find ways to restore trade balance and the responsibility has to be shared by all," Li said in Mumbai. “We will work together and create new miracles."
Chinese company chiefs accompanying Li have signed trade agreements worth around $1.5 billion, Chinese commerce minister Gao Hucheng said in Mumbai.
Speaking at an event organized by industry groups in Mumbai, Gao said 22 business agreements were signed between Indian and Chinese companies, which included 20 procurement contracts.
“When China and India speak with one voice, the world will and must listen," Li said earlier on Tuesday at a function in New Delhi.
Trying to dispel suspicions about China and its seemingly unpredictable intentions towards many of its neighbours, Li said his country was a “staunch defender of world peace" and “a member of the Asian family".
The comments come against the backdrop of recent tensions between China and many of its neighbours including Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan besides India.
Before Li’s visit to India, his first overseas since assuming office in March, Chinese troops last month intruded some 20km into Indian territory, according to Indian government accounts, leading to a face-off between the two sides. The incident was resolved after three weeks of hectic diplomatic activity and flag meetings between the armed forces of the two sides.
Such problems stem at least partly from differing perceptions over the undemarcated border dating back to the brief but bitter 1962 war between India and China.
India is also uncomfortable with China’s friendship with Pakistan, with one line of thinking suggesting that the two are seeking to contain India within South Asia to prevent its rise to major power status. Commentators have suggested that China, on its part, suspects India and the US of trying to circumscribe its influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
“We have not shied away from this question but have agreed to push forward negotiation. The two sides share the view that China and India have the wisdom to find a fair and mutually acceptable solution," he said, adding that China also understood Indian concerns over sharing of waters of cross-border rivers and the growing trade gap in favour of China.
In a veiled reference to tensions between India and Pakistan, Li said both India and China had a stake in regional security and “peace and security in South Asia is in the interest of India and China. We hope... issues will be resolved through dialogue".
He also said that “a peaceful and stable South Asia is consistent with China’s development interests and will enable China to focus on addressing problems at home".
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