New Delhi: As the senior officials of India and China meet to discuss bilateral issues, particularly trade-related ones, the onus is on India to improve its stable diplomatic relation with the Asian country.
The relation is already on a high, Politically and diplomatically, after China removed its technical hold on listing Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under the United Nations 1267 committee.
The Chinese side headed by Li Guo, Vice Minister of the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) would discuss trade issues as India seeks to have a greater market for it's manufactured and agricultural products in China.
ETV Bharat spoke to Sujit Dutta, Senior research fellow at Vivekananda International Foundation and an expert on the Indo-China relations.
"There have been a lot of positive statements that were made from the Chinese side. But no real breakthroughs have happened so far. There have been matters pertaining to the international border, China-Pak nexus and the CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Territory). But nothing of substance has been done from the Chinese side to address these issues," he said.
Although many quarters are believing that Masood Azhar's listing as a global terrorist was a 'sweetener' to India after it boycotted the 2nd BRF (Belt & Road Forum), Dutta was of the opinion that China's removing of its technical hold is more to benefit Pakistan than India.
"China would surely have not changed its stance on Masood Azhar had their not been substantial international pressure from all sections. It is also beneficial for Pakistan as it was on the risk of being blacklisted by FATF (Financial Action Task Force) and that would have made it very hard for them to get aid from IMF which they are looking for" Dutta said.
On the trade front, Dutta was hopeful that this meet would draw some discussions on China opening it's domestic markets for high demand Indian products in order to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries.
"India and China have a trade amounting to $90 billion and we have a trade deficit of around $60 billion. While after the Wuhan summit, the talks from the Chinese Foreign Minister has been positive, China surely needs to walk the talk. Indian products which have a high international demand should be given an entry into the Chinese market. For products like Pharmaceuticals, China should remove the trade barriers in their domestic market" Dutta said.
Recently India had shared a list of 380 products with China which hold huge export potential.
