China pledges $20 billion investment for India

Marking the opening of a new chapter in the economic relations between the two Asian neighbours, China has unveiled an investment package of around $20 billion to bolster infrastructure investment in India – a major step that will help bridge trade deficit and bring the two countries closer in an economic embrace.

The two Asian giants signed 12 agreements, including a pact for the establishment of two Chinese industrial parks in Gujarat and Maharashtra. The pacts were signed after side-ranging talks between India’s Prime Minister and China’s President Xi Jinping in New Delhi September 18.

Besides economic issues, the two leaders also focused on bolstering trust and agreed to fast-track negotiations for resolving their decades-old boundary dispute.

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Xi Jinping in Gujarat: Three pacts inked, big-ticket outcomes in Delhi

It was business from the word go. Barely hours after China’s President Xi Jinping began a three-day trip to India, the two Asian neighbours have signed three agreements, including a pact that will enable China to set up a sprawling industrial park in Gujarat.

In a special gesture, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew down to Ahmedabad to receive his Chinese guest. The two leaders sat down for informal talks September 17, following which three agreements were signed in their presence.

Pacts were signed between China Development Bank (CDB) and Industrial Extension Bureau (iNDEXTb) of the Gujarat government for the development an industrial park in India’s western state that has become a byword for modernisation and industrial development.

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The Long View: ABCD of India-China relations

A for Asia. B for Business. C for Culture. And D for Diplomacy and Development. This is the emerging alphabet of multi-faceted engagement between the two Asian powers which are forging a new vocabulary and semantics to script new pathways of cooperation and to reconfigure the evolving world order. The ABCD of India-China relations will find fuller articulation in the September 17-19 visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India, a potentially defining trip which could transform ties between the two Asian neighbours and create new opportunities for their 2.5 billion people, one third of the world’s humanity.

Why Modi-Xi summit matters

When the leaders of India and China hold talks, the world will be watching closely, and not without reason. They are, after all, Asia’s leading economies with a combined GDP of over $11 trillion and proactive stakeholders in crafting an inclusive international world order.

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