In the second term of the United Progressive Alliance government, China-India relations have experienced a smooth transition and taken on a new momentum of sound development. In June this year, Chinese President Hu Jintao met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Both leaders reiterated they would jointly promote the sound development of bilateral relations, enhance mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, strengthen communication and coordin ation, and push forward the Strategic and Cooperative Partnership between the two countries towards continuous, stable, and healthy development.
In his congratulatory message to Premier Wen Jiabao on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, Prime Minister Singh reaffirmed the same sentiment. In August, Chinese State Councillor Mr. Dai Bingguo paid a successful visit to India and held in-depth talks with Indian National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan on the boundary question and exchanged views on bilateral, regional, and international issues. In September, Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests of India, visited China and exchanged views on a wide range of issues, including climate change, environment and forests with his Chinese counterparts.
In terms of economic and trade cooperation, in 2008 China became India’s largest trade partner and India the 10th largest trade partner of China. The global financial crisis has seriously impacted the real economy of both countries and caused a downturn in our industrial production and exports. The two countries do face huge challenges to sustain the growth of our bilateral trade. In spite of this, China and India as two emerging markets are still outperforming others on the whole. We have advantages such as vast markets and strong domestic demand, which have made our two countries powerhouses for the recovery of the world economy.
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