by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Events, News, Politics, Social Round-up
By Gaurav Sharma,
Wuhan (China) : India and China on Saturday agreed on a joint economic project in Afghanistan, sources said after a two-day summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping here.
The long-standing border issue also figured in the meeting where Modi and Xi decided to give “strategic guidance” to their armies to prevent a Doklam-like military stand-off in 2017.
“The two leaders endorsed the work of the Special Representatives in their efforts to find a fair, reliable and truly acceptable settlement. They also underscored that in the meantime it is important to maintain peace and tranquility in all areas of the India-China border region,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said here.
“And to this end, the two leaders decided that they would issue strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication and to build trust and understanding to implement the various confidence-building measures which have already been agreed upon the two sides and to strengthen existing institutional mechanism to prevent and manage situations in the border areas,” he added.
Earlier on Saturday, Modi and Xi walked by the East Lake as they began their second round of talks.
On Friday, the two leaders agreed that healthy bilateral ties were important for a better world as they met to re-set the ties between the two nations hit by the military face-off.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, News, Politics
By Gaurav Sharma,
Wuhan (China) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping agreed that healthy bilateral ties were important for a better world as the two met in the Chinese city Wuhan to re-set the ties between India and China hit by last year’s military face-off.
On the opening day of the two-day summit, when the Chinese rolled out the red carpet for Modi, both the leaders said they would want more such informal meetings. Modi invited Xi to India in 2019.
Modi and Xi, who will have more substantive talks on Saturday, said healthy Sino-Indian ties were imperative to maintain peace and stability in the world.
India and China share a tense relationship owing to their 1962 war. Their ties touched a new low last year when their militaries were locked in a face-off near their disputed boundary.
While they had a half hour one-on-one meet at the Hubei Provincial Museum, the planned 30-minute delegation level meeting stretched to two hours.
“Our two countries have established a closed partnership. Our exchanges and cooperation have made positive progress. China and India have a combined population of 2.6 billion which has an enormous potential,” Xi said.
“As we meet, international security is at a crucial period of adjustment. China and India are both important engines for global growth and we are central pillars for promoting a multi-polar and globalised world.
“A good China-India relation is an important and positive factor for peace and stability in the world.
“I believe in the future, we will meet in a format like this from time to time. I look forward to in-depth communication with your Excellency,” Xi added.
Modi sounded equally positive.
“I agree with your message for peace and stability in the world. India and China can play a big positive role for world peace and stability.”
“During the five-yearly Congress last year, you talked about the new era (of China). In India, I am talking about new India. This reflects our similar mindset. Your dream of China’s new era and our attempt for a new India will benefit the world.
“I think the closeness and mutual trust we have established will gradually give way for people-to-people contact and will be good for the bright future.
“I am grateful for your invite and the welcome extended by you. This is perhaps the first time you have received an Indian Prime Minister twice away from Beijing,” Modi said. “This is a matter of pride for India as you yourself came to Wuhan to welcome me.
“This is just not an informal summit of two leaders but it has a historical context too.”
Modi was earlier welcomed at the Hubei Provincial Museum with an impressive cultural performance. Xi and Modi shook hands for 30 seconds. Both leaders then took a tour of the site for around an hour.
“India and China cultural connect goes back many centuries and is reflected in present times through the popularity of Bollywood, yoga and other aspects of Indian culture,” Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar quoted Modi as saying.
“In the history of 2,000 years, the economies of India and China were the anchors of the world economy for 1,600 years. In these 1,600 years, Indian and Chinese economies together accounted for 50 percent of the world’s economy.”
Xi took Modi on a tour of the exhibition of Marquis Yi of Zeng Cultural Relics and Treasure at the museum.
Modi presented Xi reprints of two paintings done by the celebrated Chinese painter Xu Beihong (1895-1953) during his stay in Shanti Niketan in 1939-40. Xu came to Shanti Niketan as the first visiting professor from China.
Modi and Xi saw an exhibition of fine relics from the Chinese civilization.
They also exchanged views on the relationship and communications between the ancient civilizations of China and India.
On Saturday, Modi and Xi will walk by the East Lake, have a boat ride and hold discussions at the East Lake guesthouse.
(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, News, Politics, Social Round-up
By Gaurav Sharma,
Beijing : China on Tuesday said President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may arrive at some important consensus to resolve the “outstanding issues”, including the boundary row when they meet at the “unprecedented” two-day summit in Chinese central city of Wuhan.
The leaders of the world’s fastest economies will meet at a “one of its kind” summit on April 27-28, which will be keenly watched as the neighbours make an unseen rapprochement in the changing world order.
Both leaders will have a “heart-to-heart” conversation but will not sign any deal or issue joint statement, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told a group of Indian and Chinese journalists ahead of the “historic” meet between Xi and Modi.
“The informal summit will not produce any joint document, but leaders of the two sides may reach very important consensus. Such consensus will also help advance the process of resolving outstanding issues,” Kong said.
He said this time, both sides decided to hold an informal summit of the two leaders, since both countries “attach great importance to each other and not because the boundary question that remain unresolved and we need to talk about it at the informal summit”.
Kong, however, said that the boundary question was very important too. “Both sides need to work together to create favourable conditions and gradually set with proper settlement of the boundary question and deepen cooperation in different sectors along with mutual understanding and trust.”
“China and India need to make deep efforts to build mutual trust. The boundary incident which happened last year somewhat reflected lack of trust,” he said.
India and China fought a brief, but bloody war in 1962 over their long-winding border. The two sides, which share a border of some 4,000 km, were also locked in a 73-day military stand-off in 2017 near their disputed boundary.
Besides this, there are other pesky issues between the two Asian giants. Kong said both the leaders will have strategic vision and historical responsibility.
“Both of them have been widely supported by their people. Both leaders have attached great importance to India-China relationship and have devoted a lot of energy to grow this relationship.
“Over the past few years they met 10 times, visited each others capitals and home towns. They also met at multilateral occasions,” Kong said, adding that every time they had very good talks and reached important consensus.
At the informal summit, they will have strategic communication on the major changes in the international landscape unseen in more than 100 years. They will have in-depth exchange of views on overarching issues, he said.
“Such exchange of views will deepen the mutual trust between the two countries, set the direction and set objectives for the further growth of bilateral ties. It will also open up new prospects in China-India cooperation.
“The summit will not only benefit the two countries but will also deliver peace and development in the region and beyond, he said.
Over the past few days and months, authorities of both the countries carried out intense engagement with each other about the upcoming informal summit to work together for a sound momentum in the India-China relations.
(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping
Beijing : Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday said that he was ready to join his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in consolidating political and strategic mutual trust and expanding bilateral all-around pragmatic cooperation.
Xi made the pledge in his New Year greeting message to Putin, reports Xinhua news agency.
China seeks to promote international strategic coordination with Russia, and to work for new fruits in the development of bilateral ties, he said.
Noting that 2018 and 2019 will be the years of cooperation and exchanges between the two countries at local levels, Xi said the events will surely boost local exchanges of China and Russia, and help grow the popularity of the idea that the two sides share a long-standing friendship and seek common development and prosperity.
He said the passing year has seen important progress in the development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, adding that the two sides have shown firm support for each other on questions concerning their respective core interests, and reaped key early harvest in docking China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative with Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union.
The President noted that the strategic and major projects of the two countries have been steadily moving forward, and the cooperation in innovation and agriculture, as well as people-to-people and media exchanges have been flourishing.
China and Russia have also maintained close and effective coordination in international and regional affairs, and have made important contribution in preserving world peace and stability, Xi added.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Xi Jinping
Beijing : Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for upgrading public toilets in the country as part of a “toilet revolution” aimed at boosting domestic tourism and improving people’s quality of life.
The President said: “The construction of clean toilets is an important part of pushing urban and rural civilisation, and more efforts should be made in both cities and rural areas to upgrade toilets,” Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
Along with the “toilet revolution”, China should also construct better public facilities and services to boost the tourism industry, Xi said.
Local authorities were now more aware of the important role toilets play, believing better and cleaner toilets were not only beneficial for tourism, but can also improve the environment that people work and live in, and enhance the overall level of civilization of society.
China launched the toilet revolution across the country in 2015 with an aim to make such facilities cleaner and more regulated.
Toilets in the countryside and at tourist sites previously have had a bad reputation.
In rural areas, some toilets were little more than makeshift shelters surrounded by bunches of cornstalks, and some were open pits next to pig sties.
At tourist sites, visitors were angered by insufficient toilets, unhygienic conditions and lack of sanitation workers.
By the end of October, China had installed or upgraded 68,000 toilets at tourist destinations, 19.3 per cent more than the target number.
The toilet revolution has been expanding gradually from tourist sites to cover the whole country, from cities to rural areas.
The country has planned to install or upgrade another 64,000 toilets at tourist destinations from 2018 to 2020, according to an action plan released by the China National Tourism Administration.
—IANS
