India, China hold meet on trade, tech

NEW DELHI: As part of the government’s renewed engagement with China, two countries hosted the 11th meeting of the Indiachina Joint Group on Economic Relations, Trade, Science and Technology here on Monday. The last such meeting was held in Beijing in September 2014.

The meeting was co-chaired by commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu and his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan and the two discussed ways to address trade imbalance and create an action plan to take trade ties forward, a government statement as well as officials familiar with the meeting said.

“Trade is a very important aspect of bilateral ties between the two. That this meeting happened the second time after the NDA govt came to power goes well with the series of bilateral engagements India and China are undertaking in recent times,” said an Indian official.

Welcoming Zhong, Prabhu stressed that this joint group is one of the oldest and “most important dialogue mechanism between the two sides”. A statement from the govt said India’s trade imbalance with China is most important issue to be taken up by group.

“The minister exhorted his Chinese counterpart for greater market access for agricultural products . Another commodity which could be exported from India to China is high quality pharmaceutical products,” it said.