India and China today agreed on vision for future development of their strategic and cooperative partnership. A joint statement issued this evening said, both nations agreed to further strengthen coordination and cooperation in multilateral forums to jointly tackle global issues such as climate change, international terrorism, food and energy security, and to establish a fair and equitable international political and economic system. The joint statement was issued in Beijing following summit and delegation level talks and meetings of Dr Manmohan Singh with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhang Dejiang.
The two sides recalled the important understandings reached between leaders of the two countries this year. They reaffirmed their commitment to take forward their Strategic and Cooperative Partnership for Peace and Prosperity by following the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Panchsheel and displaying mutual respect and sensitivity to each other’s concerns and aspirations.
To promote a balanced growth of bilateral trade the Joint Economic Group will continue to expand the bilateral economic cooperation and Working Groups will expeditiously discharge their mandates. The two sides also agreed to look into the prospects of a bilateral Regional Trade Arrangement, RTA and also review the state of the negotiation on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, RCEP. The joint statement said, efforts to conclude a framework agreement for the establishment of industrial zones to provide platforms of cluster type development for enterprises of the two countries would be expedited.
Both the countries decided to continue to discuss with the other parties to Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar, BCIM Economic Corridor and the first BCIM Joint Study Group will be meeting in coming December to study the specific programmes on building the Corridor.
Underlining defence exchanges and military exercises as important in building greater trust and confidence, both countries decided for holding of a counter-terrorism exercise next month. Exchanges and visits agreed upon by the Defence Ministers of the two countries in July 2013 will be implemented step by step.
