Modi, Xi iron out trade issues
INFORMAL MEET No mention of Kashmir in discussions, says India; Chinese President invites PM for a third summit The number of Indian batsmen who have scored over 250 in Test innings Kohli is the fourth fastest player to score 26 Test centuries
MAMALLAPURAM: India and China on Saturday unveiled a new high-level mechanism to address trade-related concerns and boost commerce after an informal summit of their leadership agreed to consolidate strategic communications on issues ranging from defence to counter-terrorism.
The Kashmir issue, the subject of a testy exchange between the two sides in the run-up to the second i n f o r mal s u mmit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping i n t he seaside town of Mamallapuram, wasn’t raised or discussed, according to foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale.
The first informal summit, held i n t he Chinese ci t y of Wuhan last year, had helped reset ties after the military faceoff at Doklam in 2017, and Modi spoke about the “Chennai Connect” from the Mamallapuram summit marking a new era of cooperation between India and China.
Modi and Xi spent close to six hours in one-on-one conversations since the Chinese president arrived in Chennai on Friday, including 90 minutes of discussions on Saturday, and people familiar with developments said the discussions focused on consolidating the strategic communications and guidance that had been a key o ut c o me o f t he Wuhan summit.
“It was all about how differences shouldn’t be allowed to dominate the entire relationship,” said an official who declined to be named.
“It was about putting ring fences around contentious issues.”
Another person familiar with the discussions, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Chinese side had apparently decided not to raise the Kashmir as the president had stated his position in public remarks and the joint release issued during Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit to Beijing earlier this week.
Describing the discussions as “good and comfortable”, this person said: “There were no sharp edges in the meeting and everything was rounded.”
The two leaders agreed to set up the High-level Economic and Trade Dialogue mechanism, to be led by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chinese vice premier Hu Chunhua, to enhance trade relations and discuss all related matters, including India’s concerns about the trade deficit of more than $50 billion.
Gokhale quoted Xi as saying that China is ready to take “sincere action” on India’s concerns and discuss a “concrete way” to reduce the trade deficit. Xi also welcomed Indian investments in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and IT. The two leaders also discussed mutual investments in specific sectors through a “manufacturing partnership” that will be shaped by the new mechanism.
Modi and Xi also spoke about strengthening a rules-based order for the global trading system with the WTO as its central pillar, and had a brief discussion on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade pact being negotiated by the 10 Asean states and six other countries, including China and India.
India, Modi said, is looking forward to RCEP but is keen to ensure the proposed agreement strikes a balance between trade in goods and services. Xi said China is ready to take Indian concerns into account in negotiations on RCEP.
After Kohli lead India to 601/5, they bowled out South Africa for 275 despite a half-century by tailender Keshav Maharaj in the second Test on Saturday. Kohli is the first Indian to hit 7 double hundreds. These knocks have come in a span of 40 Tests
Plplayer Ddoublebl centuries i
Virat Kohli
Sachin Tendulkar
Virender Sehwag
Rahul Dravid
Sunil Gavaskar
Cheteshwar Pujara
3
4
5 6 6
7 His first double-century came in June 2016 and since then he has scored more than entire teams
Test double centuries since June 2016
Virat Kohli
England
New Zealand
Pakistan
Australia
Bangladesh
West Indies
1 2 2 3 3 3
7 In his 50th Test as captain, Kohli surpassed batting great Don Bradman's Test tally of 6,996 runs
Number of innings to complete 7,000 Test runs Wally Hammond (Eng) 131 Virender Sehwag (Ind) 134 Sachin Tendulkar (Ind) 136 Virat Kohli (Ind) 138 Garry Sobers (WI) 138 Kumar Sangakkara (SL) 138 He is now also in the top 50 Test run-scorers of all time Virat Kohli is also the most successful Indian Test captain with 29 victories in 50 matches
Player M Wins
Virat Kohli 50
MS Dhoni 60
Sourav Ganguly 49
Mohammad Azharuddin 47
Sunil Gavaskar 47 14 9 29 27 21