India’s new prime minister rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping in his home town on Wednesday, as the Xi began a maiden visit with both sides seeking to reset the relationship between Asia’s rival superpowers.
The two sides signed three agreements on Wednesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping at Ahmedabad.
Industrial, health and educational infrastructure of China will now be available in the Indian state of Gujarat with the inking of the three MoUS.
State government sources said China Development Bank and Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation will jointly set up an industrial park in the state.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and the Chinese health department signed an agreement to provide health and urban hygiene and educational infrastructure.
A third MoU was between the governments of Guangdong province of China and Gujarat.
A galaxy of business leaders from both countries was present along with Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and her cabinet colleagues.
Narendra Modi welcomes Xi Jinping
Narendra Modi has pulled out all the stops for Xi’s arrival, organising an intimate riverside dinner in Ahmedabad, the main city in his home state of Gujarat, where giant billboards in Chinese, Gujarati and English have been put up to welcome him.
With both sides eager to emphasise cooperation over competition, Xi said in an article published on Wednesday that “the world’s factory and the world’s back office” made a winning combination, welcoming Indian businesses to China and pledging much-needed funding for infrastructure development.
Despite his hardline nationalist reputation, Modi moved quickly to engage with China after winning office this year on a campaign promise to revive India’s flagging economy, which experts say has been held back by weak infrastructure.
But Modi has also made clear he sees China as a competitor and intends to pursue a more muscular foreign policy than the previous centre-left Congress party government.
During his election campaign, he said that China would have to shed what he called its “expansionist mindset”, although he also spoke of his admiration for China’s economic success.
The neighbours, now nuclear-armed, fought a brief but bloody war in 1962 over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern Himalayas, and are still embroiled in a bitter dispute over the territory.
Border issues are on the agenda for Xi’s visit, which comes amid reports in India of Chinese incursions along the de-facto frontier.
But both sides say they want to focus on economic cooperation, with India seeking Chinese funding for an overhaul of its dilapidated railways and cooperation in nuclear energy.
“China-India relations have become one of the most dynamic and promising bilateral relations in the 21st century,” wrote Xi in the article in The Hindu daily.
China is India’s biggest trading partner, with annual two-way commerce of more than $65 billion. But Indian data shows the trade deficit with China has soared to more than $40 billion from just $1 billion in 2001-02.
Experts said China would seek to allay Indian concerns over the widening deficit as it tries to cement its relationship with its western neighbour at a time of heightened tensions with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations over disputed sea territory.
Source: Prothom Alo
