The two-day informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded on Saturday with the two sides agreeing to set up a new mechanism to address trade deficit, improve investment and services.
On Friday and Saturday, both the leaders met for nearly six hours in the heritage town of Mamallapuram, 50 kms from Chennai.
PM Modi said that the 'Chennai Connect' would add great momentum to India-China relations and would benefit the people of the two nations and the world.
“The two leaders had an in-depth exchange of views in a friendly atmosphere on overarching, long-term and strategic issues of global and regional importance and shared their respective approaches towards national development,” said MEA.
“We had decided that we will manage our differences prudently and won't allow them to turn into disputes. We will remain sensitive about our concerns and our relationship will contribute towards peace and stability in the world. The Wuhan summit instilled a new momentum and trust in our relations and today's 'Chennai Connect' is the start of a new era in India-China relations,” said Modi.
The first informal summit between India and China last year in Wuhan, China, in April, 2018, led to fresh stability in our relations and provided fresh momentum. Strategic communication between the two countries also increased after the summit, he added.
On his part, Xi said the two leaders engaged in candid conversation like friends and had heart to heart discussions on bilateral relations. “I look forward to further discussions. I may pursue proposals on bilateral ties discussed yesterday,” he said.
Xi said informal summits suggested by Prime Minister Modi, had been a brilliant idea. "We are able to bring forth closer cooperation between both countries," he said.
Briefing the media on Modi-Xi summit, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said India and China had decided to establish a new mechanism to enhance mutual trade and investment and services. From China, it would be Vice-Premier Hu Chunhua and from India, it would be Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. They would also discuss how to reduce trade deficit.
The high-level Economic and Trade Dialogue mechanism will help achieve enhanced trade and commercial relations, and better the trade balance between the two countries, Gokhale said.
It is important to support and strengthen the rules-based multilateral trading system at a time when globally agreed trade practices and norms are being selectively questioned. India and China will continue to work together for open and inclusive trade arrangements that will benefit all countries. Both leaders shared the view that the international situation was witnessing significant readjustment. They were of the view that India and China shared the common objective of working for a peaceful, secure and prosperous world in which all countries could pursue their development within a rules-based international order.
When asked about Chinese telecom equipment firm Huawei's 5G trials, Gokhale said it was not, but the new mechanism would discuss private and public sector investments in both the countries. President Xi welcomed Indian investments in China in the fields of pharma and IT. The two-way trade of $87 billion, is skewed towards China.
Sharad Kumar Saraf, president, FIEO, said that the deficit narrowed down to $53 billion in last fiscal and India's untapped exports potential to China, as per ITC, was $ 18 billion, much more than India's current exports of $16.8 billion.
With regards to Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Prime Minister told Chinese President Xi Jinping that it was important that RCEP is balanced.
He said, Kashmir issue was not raised and not discussed. "Our position is anyways very clear that this is an internal matter of India," said Gokhale adding that radicalisation was a matter of concern to both and it was important to deal with the challenges of terrorism and radicalisation in an increasingly complex world. Both countries agreed they should work together to deal with challenges of terrorism.
He added, Chinese President talked about Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent visit to China with Modi.
The two leaders also exchanged views on outstanding issues, including on the boundary question.
President Xi Jinping has invited Prime Minister Modi to China for the next summit and the latter has accepted the invitation. Dates will be worked out later.
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