New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said it expects the coming India visit of Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to herald a new relationship between the two Asian giants and boost bilateral ties.
"Chinese premier's visit is very significant. Not only it is our biggest neighbour but our trade relations are also expanding very fast," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in New Delhi.
Wen is leading a high level delegation to India for a two-day trip, starting on December 16.
The trade between India and China stood at $42.4 billion in 2009-10.
Of this, import to India was of $30.8 billion, while the country exported goods worth $11.6 billion to China.
Ahead of Wen's visit, Indian exporters had asked the government to take up with China the issue of trade barriers they face in entering the market of the neighbouring country.
Indian traders face difficulty in penetrating the Chinese markets due to host of technical barriers and this resulted in a huge trade deficit of $19 billion against India in 2009-10.
During the first 10 months of the current fiscal, China's exports to India amounted to $32.87 billion, while imports were only $17 billion.
In a media briefing in Beijing recently, Liang Wenzhao, the Deputy Director of the Department of Asian Affairs of China's Ministry of Commerce said his government is taking a number of measures to expand its import from India.
He said the measures include sending trade and investment promotion information to India to purchase products it wants to export, as well as its (India's) competitive products.
Early this month, the Indian government said China's economic policies, including the exchange rate regime, are making India's exports to neighbouring nation "uneconomic and cumbersome".
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia termed the relationship between India and China as one of potential.
"We are two large economies in Asia. We have a lot of potential and economic interest which coincide. We also compete but that is normal. The two leaders will meet and hopefully will have a better understanding on issues on which we disagree," he said.
Ahluwalia said in economic area, India and China have a lot of common interests.
"During the visit, issues will be thrashed out on the economic side...on the economic side relationship has increased. Both the countries need to create an enviroment in which there is room for India and China to grow," he said.
Ahluwalia added that the India-China relationship could herald the arrival of multi-polar world order with different centres of power.
"I dont like the term superpower (for both China and India)...I have been talking about two emerging powers...China is a very important market and we look ahead as the global re-balance takes place," he said.
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