Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been dynamic regarding foreign relations since he joined office in May last year. He has visited major countries like USA, Japan, France, Germany, Australia and South East Asian countries. Now he is leaving on a three nation visit to China, Mongolia and South Korea on May 14, 2015. Although he will visit 3 Asian countries, the focus of his visit will be China. This will be the meeting of the heads of two most populous countries. Not only Asia but also the whole world will be having an eye on it.
On this tour, political and diplomatic issues will be discussed but the major focus will be on business ties. It is very clear that PM Modi has not left a single occasion to woo the investors to invest in India. China can play a big role in this area. When Chinese President Xi Jinping came to India, a dozen of MoU’s were signed, related to economic affairs. Hopes remain the same this time also. China, who is having the highest foreign exchange reserve in the world, is interested in investing in India. China can invest in the Projects like Smart City, Make in India, Infrastructure Development and Railway Project. While China has developed the state of the art technology in developing High Speed Rail Network, India requires huge investments in order to make changes in the basic structure of the economy. Thus China would like to utilize this opportunity. India’s bilateral trade with china stands at US $ 70 billion. The economies of both the counties are growing at a decent rate. International agencies like IMF, World Bank and Mooding Rating Agency has predicted over 7% growth rate for India in the current financial year. This is a good incentive for Chinese companies to invest in India. Indian Corporates presently working in China are also excited about this visit of PM Modi. Leading to this, Corporates meetings are taking place in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities of China. During the visit of PM Modi round table meetings will take place between heads of various Chinese companies. Better results are expected of these meetings.
India needs to bring about structural reforms to revive the Indian Economy and China can play a big role in this task. Modi has an old interest of working with China. He has visited China a couple of times while he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. Large presence of Chinese companies in Gujarat signifies that China likes to work with MrModi. Undoubtedly, PM Modi would woo the Chinese investors during this high profile visit to China. China believes that Modi has the capability to revive the Indian Economy to new heights.
Strong relations between India and China are important not only for Asia but for whole world. Along with regional problems, both nations are cooperating with each other on international issues such as Climate change and terrorism. India is a prime victim of terrorism while China has also faced several terrorist issues in recent years. Both countries expect mutual help in fighting the menace of terrorism.
Another significant issue between the two neighbor countries is border conflict. There was unrest at the border when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India last year. Prime Minister Modi was criticized by opposition political parties regarding this issue. This issue will be a part of discussions when Modi visits china.
India and China are celebrating 65th year of establishment of political relations. Several programmes are being organized on this occasion. People can see Amir Khan and Jackie Chain together in a film featuring friendly relations of both the countries. India and China have centuries old relations but there is very low level cooperation in the field of science, art, culture and cinema. We can expect a boost in all these fields after this visit.