Xi- Modi meet, build on Wuhan bonhomie
Bank of China’s first branch to open in Mumbai
Qingdao, June 9: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday held a warm and forward looking meeting here on the sidelines of the two- day 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ( SCO) summit.
At the meeting, aimed at further strengthening the positive momentum in the bilateral relationship between the two Asian powers, the Chinese President accepted Prime Minister Modi’s invite to India for an informal summit next year, and India agreed to open Bank of China’s first branch in Mumbai.
Before their meeting, the two leaders had a warm handshake and posed for photographs.
In his opening remarks, Mr Modi recalled his informal summit with Mr Xi in Wuhan in April and said that strong and stable relations between India and China can inspire a stable and peaceful world.
At their meeting, the two leaders also discussed and took stock of the progress in the implementation of decisions they had taken during the summit in Wuhan. They also signed two MoUs related to sharing of hydrological information on Brahmaputra and export of non- Basmati rice to China.
President Xi suggested to Prime Minister Modi that the two countries set up a new bilateral trade target of $ 100 billion by 2020 as Beijing is looking at importing non- Basmati rice as well as sugar to address the trade deficit.
Though the two countries had earlier set a bilateral trade target of $ 100 billion by 2015, the India- China bilateral trade reached $ 84.44 billion last year.
India and China also decided to set up a new “people to people
mechanism”, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said during a press briefing after the meeting between the two leaders in this coastal city of China.
“During the Wuhan summit, the two countries had also decided that people to people contact and people to people exchanges were a significant part of the relationship going forward… In that context, the two leaders have agreed that a new people to poeple mechanism will be set up. It will be headed on the Indian side by the external affairs minister and on the Chinese side by the state council and foreign minster Wang Yi and the first meeting of this P- to- P mechanism will be held this year,” he added.
Mr Gokhale said one of the important issues discussed in that context was Indian films, with President Xi in fact referring to the growing popularity of Indian films in China. Mr Xi not only mentioned Dangal, but also cited Baahubali and Hindi Medium as films that have been screened in China and received popular acclaim, the foreign secretary said.
Mr Modi had met Mr Xi in April in an unprecedented two- day “heart- toheart” summit in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on April 27- 28 to “solidify” the India- China relationship after ties between the two countries had nose- dived following the Doklam standoff.
Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a 73day standoff in Doklam since June 16 after the Indian side stopped the construction of a road by the Chinese Army in the disputed area. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face- off ended on August 28.
Mr Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the SCO Summit after India along with Pakistan became fullfledged members of the grouping, which has been increasingly seen as a counter to Nato.
Mr Modi is expected to hold nearly half- a- dozen bilateral meetings with leaders of other SCO countries.
The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the Presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Agencies —