At the invitation of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Yan visited India and attended the 2015 Partner Summit held in the capital of Rajasthan Jaipur on January 15-17. Hosted by the Indian ministry, the summit focused on discussing such topics as expanding foreign trade and economic cooperation of India and deeply promoting regional economic integration. More than 1,000 politicians and persons of business circles including principals of international organizations and trade and economic authorities of more than 20 countries and regions attended the meeting.
Gao, when delivering the keynote speech in the meeting, pointed out that after the international financial crisis in 2008, the world economic situation has experienced deep adjustment, and especially the rapid rise of the emerging and developing economies has injected new power into the world economy and China and India, as two major developing powers, have played a recognized leading role in this process. The two countries share similar fundamental realities and development goals and concepts and are natural cooperative partners. The cooperation between the two countries not only benefits 2.5 billion people of both sides, but also exerts a profound influence on Asia and even the world. China accelerates the implementation of the free trade area strategy, actively participates in the process of regional economic integration when firmly safeguarding the main channel role of the multilateral trade system and is willing to closely cooperate with India to make positive progress in the negotiations on the regional comprehensive economic partnership.
During the visit, Gao met with Minister of Commerce and Industry of India Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Minister of Rajasthan Radj respectively. Both sides exchanged views on such topics as implementing the consensus of the leaders of the two countries, continuing promoting the development of the trade and economic relationship between China and India and strengthening local cooperation. Gao said that in 2014, bilateral trade and economic cooperation obtained remarkable achievements. Both sides convened the 10th Meeting of the China-India Trade and Economic Joint Group and signed many cooperative documents. The trade volume between the two countries once again exceeded US$70 billion since 2011 and India has become an important destination for Chinese enterprises to “go abroad” in South Asia. Sitharaman said that India pays high attention to the relations with China, hoping that bilateral trade imbalance can be further improved. He encouraged Chinese enterprises to expand investment in infrastructure and manufacturing in India and India was willing to maintain communication and exchange with China on jointly concerned global trade issues.
