Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a two-day visit to China for the annual meeting of the Council of Heads of States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The SCO Summit 2018 is currently underway in Qingdao, China. During the summit, India signed various pacts and agreements with the member countries including host nation China. Prime Minister Modi held nearly half a dozen bilateral meetings with leaders of other SCO countries.
Here’s what has happened so far
- President Xi Jinping has suggested to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that China and India should set up a new bilateral trade target of USD 100 billion by 2020. According to data of the Chinese General Administration of Customs, India-China bilateral trade reached USD 84.44 billion last year. The bilateral trade in 2017 rose by 18.63 per cent year-on-year to reach USD 84.44 billion. New Delhi and Beijing had earlier set a bilateral trade target of USD 100 billion by 2015.
- An agreement was signed between China’s General Administration of Customs and India’s Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare on Phytosanitary requirements for exporting rice from India to China. The 2006 Protocol on Phytosanitary Requirements for Exporting Rice from India to China has been amended to include the export of non-Basmati varieties of rice from India. At present, India can only export Basmati rice to China.
- India and China signed bilateral agreement on continuing the sharing of hydrological data on the Brahmaputra river – which China stopped last year. In 2017, China had refused to share information on the movement, distribution and quality of water for the Brahmaputra river without which India couldn’t prepare for the massive floods that hit the Indian region.
- Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale today said that China is looking at enhancing agricultural exports from India including non-Basmati rice and sugar. China has also agreed to encourage India’s pharmaceutical companies to register for high quality pharma products in its market. This is an important development as India has been pressing for greater pharma exports into China.
- Prime Minister Modi invited the Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev to join the International Solar Alliance- an initiative announced in 2015 whose primary objective is to work for efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
- Prime Minister Modi called for respect for sovereignty, economic growth, connectivity and unity among the members of the SCO. The Prime Minister coined an acronym ‘SECURE’ which he explained: S’ for security for citizens, E’ for economic development, C’ for connectivity in the region, U’ for unity, R’ for respect of sovereignty and integrity, E’ for environment protection.
- PM Modi talked about the importance of linking the region with transport corridors and said connectivity does not only mean geographical link but a way to ensure people-to-people contact. “India welcomes any such project which is inclusive, sustainable and transparent. And which respects member states’ sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Modi said in a veiled dig at China’s One Belt One Road project.
- Prime Minister Modi also met Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain after a press conference by the leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meet. Modi and Hussain were among the leaders who attended the media briefing after culmination of the 18th SCO summit where India and Pakistan participated as full-fledged members.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping called for efforts to give full play to the role of the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group to facilitate peace and reconstruction in war-torn Afghanistan. He said that the SCO members need to build a powerful engine to achieve common development.
- China will set up a 30-billion-yuan (USD 4.7 billion) equivalent special lending facility within the framework of the SCO Inter-bank Consortium. In the next three years, China will provide 3,000 training opportunities of human resources development for SCO member states to enhance public understanding of and support for the SCO family.
- The SCO currently has eight member countries – China, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – which represents around 42 per cent of the world’s population and 20 per cent of the global GDP.
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