Amidst rising uncertainty in the global economy, Asia’s leading economies India and China have agreed to raise the level of economic engagement between the two countries.
This was the key message of the day-long strategic economic dialogue and high-level meetings between delegations from the two nations on Monday.
The two sides have also agreed to cooperate at the global level, strengthen communication on macroeconomic policies, deepen and expand trade and investment and expand cooperation in the financial and infrastructure sectors.
The Chinese delegation head Zhang Ping, who is also the Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The head of the Indian delegation Montek Singh Ahluwalia confirmed the meeting. However, there was no communication from the Chinese side.
Meanwhile, Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that Singh believes the two sides can achieve great things through cooperation in the fields of policy coordination, infrastructure construction, high technology applications for energy efficiency, environment protection and energy. The two countries also signed several signed MoUs to this effect.
In his response, Zhang said both China and India are implementing their respective 12th Five-Year Plans and the two countries have huge potential for cooperation.
He said that while the international financial crisis is expanding and global economic decline is exerting more and more pressure on all countries, it is all the more important for China and India to carry out macro-economic dialogue and push forward economic and trade cooperation in a pragmatic way, the agency added.
Meanwhile, Ahluwalia said that the view emanating from the Chinese side is that “they would also like a deepening of economic cooperation.”
He said the large Chinese delegation, which had 180 members, indicated “how serious they are” about improving economic ties. The economic dialogue emerged from a visit by outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to India in December 2010.