Vaidyanathan Iyer
The Indian Express
February 3, 2015
India will soon be a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), a powerful international grouping of 21 countries including the United States and Japan, which promotes free trade among its members.
At the end of the 13th meeting of RIC (Russia, India, China) foreign ministers, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Monday, “India’s participation in APEC has been welcomed by both China and Russia.”
During the BRICS summit in Fortaleza in Brazil last July, Chinese President Xi Jinping had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the APEC trade forum meeting in Beijing in November 2014, but New Delhi later realised this was only a side event, and did not participate.
“Acknowledging India’s important role in driving global economic growth, and supporting the openness of APEC, China and Russia would welcome India’s participation in APEC,” the joint communique issued after the RIC foreign ministers meeting stated.
“Russia and China have also welcomed our participation in SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation),” Swaraj said. SCO, formed in 2001, is a Eurasian bloc that includes Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan besides China and Russia.
The joint communique, however, said, “China and Russia welcomed India’s application for full membership of SCO and supported India to join the SCO after completing all necessary negotiations and legal processes.”
Swaraj also said the RIC has supported a 1996 proposal tabled by India in the United Nations on countering terrorism. “Both Russia and China have accepted the proposal,” she said, indicating that the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) may finally see the light of day.
The joint statement, however, left scope for interpretation. “They (RIC) called for early conclusion of negotiations on the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism,” it said.
Earlier in the day, Swaraj had a 30-minute meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China before May 26. “It was a short courtesy meeting,” an External Affairs Ministry official said.
The meeting took stock of the progress on talks that Xi and Modi had had in September in India. The Chinese President said his visit had been productive, and thanked the Prime Minister for receiving and hosting him. While India has suggested likely dates for the PM’s visit, China has said it would revert with the dates that were mutually convenient.
“I have full confidence in India-China relations, and I believe that new progress will be achieved in growing this bilateral relationship in this new year,” Xi told Swaraj, PTI reported. “The positive side of India-China relations has been growing, his earlier visits, Modi said he would be glad to go there again.
Xi spoke about Modi’s focus on development as the Gujarat Chief Minister. “The Prime Minister also referred to Xi’s experiences, as reflected through his speeches before he became the President of China,” said an official spokesperson. This enabled the two leaders to exchange their views without any constraints as the bilateral meeting progressed, the spokesperson added.
Modi said that India’s trade deficit with China must reduce through increased Indian exports. Xi stressed the need for a much more balanced trade for trade ties to be sustainable. “Enhanced trade in services, higher Indian exports and increased tourism from China to India, can bring the deficit down,” Xi is learnt to have noted. India suffered a $31 billion trade deficit in 2013 on a $65.47 billion bilateral trade.
The Modi-Xi dialogue is the fourth high-level meeting between the two countries in the last six weeks. China Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India in June as a special envoy of the President. Vice President Hamid Ansari held bilateral discussions with his counterpart Li Yuanchao during a five-day visit in June. Indian Army Chief General Bikram Singh visited China earlier this month.
