The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday expressed hope that China would give an appropriate and mature reply to the honest efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been trying to outreach to Beijing so that relations between the two sides move forward in a positive direction.
“If it is said that the 21st century is going to be the century of Asia; India and China are considered one of the major reasons. So, the Prime Minister with an honest approach is trying to outreach to China though our relations remains quite sensitive and tense in several aspects,” said BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.
“But we hope that China will give an appropriate and mature reply to the honest efforts of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that our relation should go ahead forward in a positive direction,” he added.
Prime Minister Modi will leave on a three-nation visit tonight. His first destination will be Chinese city of Xian. He will then arrive in Beijing tomorrow evening and will visit Shanghai.
The Prime Minister’s visit to China could herald a new era in the relations between New Delhi and Beijing as he himself has highlighted the strong potential of bilateral ties.
China is not only India’s neighbour with boundary issues but also the largest trading partner with huge trade imbalance.
Trade and economic relationship has seen rapid progress in the last few years. India-China bilateral trade which was as low as USD 2.92 billion in 2000 reached USD 41.85 billion in 2008. By 2014, India-China bilateral trade stood at USD 70.65 billion. India’s exports to China touched USD 16.41 billion whereas China’s exports were USD 54.42 billion.
However, India still faces a growing trade deficit vis-a-vis China. In 2014, the trade deficit stood at USD 37.8 billion.
Apart from trade, India is also one of the largest markets for project exports from China.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited China earlier in February during which she met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and had formal talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Prime Minister Modi will leave for Mongolia on Saturday. South Korea will be the third country on Prime Minister’s itinerary. (ANI)