India & Indonesia agree to nearly triple bilateral trade to $50 billion
JAKARTA: India and Indonesia have agreed to double their efforts to boost bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday after holding comprehensive talks with President Joko Widodo.
Prime Minister Modi, who arrived here last night on his first-ever official visit to Indonesia, exchanged views with President Widodo on potential areas of cooperation in areas like defence, maritime security, trade and economy.
In a joint press statement after the talks, Modi said India and Indonesia have agreed to upgrade their ties to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
He said India and Indonesia have agreed to double their efforts to take bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2025.
According to Indonesia's Central Statistics Agency (BPS), trade between the two countries in 2016 was $12.9 billion. It rose 28.7 per cent to $18.13 billion in 2017 with Indonesia's exports to India reaching $14.08 billion and its imports from India standing at $4.05 billion.
In a joint statement issued after the talks, the two countries said they have agreed to work intensively for the early conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and reiterated that it needs to be comprehensive, fair and balanced with benefit to all member states. The two leaders also instructed officials to optimise the cooperation between ASEAN and India for establishing a sustainable and mutually beneficial trade relations. NEW DELHI: India will endeavour to have a "balanced" RECP trade agreement as it would cover 40 per cent of the global GDP and over 42 per cent of the world's population, a top government official said.
"This is perhaps the most ambitious agreement we are doing. It encompasses about 40 per cent of global GDP and over 42 per cent of the world's population. So it's a huge significant bloc. It is not an easy one. There will be ramifications, nevertheless it is important because of our geographical connect and our natural complementarities," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said.