Bilateral trade between India and China opened on Monday through the fabled Silk Road, reported the Hindustan Times.

“Border trade was earlier scheduled to open on May 1 but was postponed after Beijing requested New Delhi to delay the start following landslides in the Tibet Autonomous Region,” said Ujwal Gurung, Sikkim’s director of industry and commerce.

“Formal trade for the current year began on Monday and would continue until Nov 30,” Gurung told IANS.

The two Asian giants in July 2006 reopened trade across the 15,000-ft Nathu La Pass, 52 km east of Sikkim’s capital Gangtok, as part of a broader rapprochement. The move marked the first direct trade link between the nuclear-armed neighbours since a bitter border war in 1962.

Under an agreement reached between the two countries, trade takes place four days a week - Monday to Thursday - beginning May 1 each year and lasting until Nov 30 when snow makes the area impassable.

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India’s Minister for Culture & Tourism opens first China office in Beijing

The Indian Minister for Culture & Tourism, Madame Ambika Soni opened the nations first national tourism office in Beijing last night at a star studded gala dinner at the Beijing hotel. This follows the Chinese establishment of a similar office in New Delhi last August.

The new office, sited on the 29th floor of the East Tower of Beijing’s prestigious Twin Towers - the same building as Dezan Shira & Associates regional office - is headed up by Mr. S.R. Meena and is the 14th overseas office of the Indian Tourism Department.

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Beijing, Jan.14 - H.E. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of the Republic of lndia, and H.E. Mr. Wen Jiabao, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, yesterday met in Beijing with the aim of strengthening peace and prosperity between the two nations as well as developing a strategic and cooperative partnership.

lndia and China, home to more than one-third of the world’s population, play a significant role in the future economic and social development of Asia and thus this meeting in Beijing served to further highlight the importance that both countries have attached to their role in maintaining sustainable economic and social development and simultaneously driving forward two of the most booming economies in the world.

In his speech Dr. Singh highlighted a number of important issues that the two nations must face as well as ways in which both China and India can work together in harmony to ensure that this development continues unabated. Here are some excerpts:

In his opening paragraphs, Dr. Singh strongly emphasized the importance of strengthening the relationship between India and China stating that: “the India-China friendship and common development will have a positive influence on the future of the international system. India-China relations are not targeted at any country, nor will it affect their friendship with other countries.”

“Both China and India believe that in the new century, Panchsheel, the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence, should continue to constitute the basic guiding principles for good relations between all countries.”

Dr. Singh reiterated that: “An international system founded on these principles will be fair, rational, equal and mutually beneficial, will promote durable peace and common prosperity, create equal opportunities and eliminate poverty and discrimination.”

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China-India bilateral trade doubled in 2007

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Jan.14 - Dr. Manmohan Singh, India’s Prime Minister, addressed the India-China Economic, Trade & Investment Summit this morning and reminded the delegates that a resumption of Chinese and Indian global trade was just a return to the previous global balance of the 18th century.

His full comments at the summit are reproduced below

Ladies and Gentlemen,

India and China are today the fastest growing large economies in the world. We should remember that China, India and Europe had almost equal shares of world income in the early 18th century. As the 21st century unfolds, both India and China stand poised to regain their weight in the global economy.

Our two countries will need to work together to ensure that we contribute to, even as we benefit from, the economic resurgence and integration of Asia. Our two economies are becoming engines of economic growth and must use our natural and human resources, technology and capital for the common benefit of the region.

The Indian economy has witnessed growth rates of close to 9 percent per year in the last three years. Our macro-economic fundamentals are strong. We have undertaken a series of economic reform measures to facilitate investment and growth. Our savings and investment rates have increased to 35 percent of our GDP and are rising. With a predominantly young population, there is potential for further increase in these rates.

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Its time again for some ‘Hindi-chinni bhai bhai’, and everyone’s excited to see what the two super powers do next. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to visit Beijing, China from the 13-15th of January this year. The return visit (President Hu visited India in 2006) is seen as more of a bridge building, friendly effort rather than a deal striking effort before the elections in India next year. The PM’s visit is seen more as a follow-up visit to Sonia Gandhi’s (the head of the ruling Congress Party) visit a few months ago.

China’s president Hu Jintao & India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. 

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In a recent development to strengthening bi-lateral ties in the region, the Indian government has set up a consulate general office in Guangzhou, South China. In a reciprocal measure, the Chinese government started a consulate general office in Kolkata, in East India. Both consulates have a visa, consular affairs, commerce and cultural affairs section, even as they’ve vowed to commit themselves to simplifying visa application procedures.

Both India and China are also in talks to open direct flights from Guangzhou to Kolkata in the recent future. The move comes at a time when the governments are thawing hostilities since their cold war in 1962, when Chinese and Indian consulate generals did exist in both Kolkata and Guangzhou.

The move comes at a time when India China trade is heating up. The two major port cities both have a prime role to play in India-China trade. With sea routes having taken the place of the ancient silk route, both Kolkata and Guangzhou as big, bustling port cities have a significant role to play in changing trade dynamics in the region.

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2point6billion.com, in conjunction with the Indian Embassy and the Capital Club in Beijing organized last night an evening of Indian culture ‘with a twist’ to a crowd of 150 guests including the Ambassadors of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, in addition to the Chinese Ambassador to India and many Indian and Chinese clients of Dezan Shira & Associates and other guests. 

Ishira, who is originally from Yunnan Province in South-West China, has studied classical Indian dance moves

Displays were given by the Yogi Yoga Centre in Beijing, a Chinese owned yoga centre, with some amazing contortions carried out by the Indian Yoga masters, by the dancer Ishira, who is originally from Yunnan by has studied Indian classical dance in India for many years, to the crack Indian fusion jazz-rock group Indian Ocean, who flew into Beijing specifically for the event following their successful sell out tour of Japan.

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We’ve had a lot of emails about the 2point6billion event we held last week in Beijing and specifically the content about the new air, rail and road links that China and India are currently developing. Chris always uses powerpoints as prompts rather than as the full text for his speech, and he never pre-writes what he’s going to say anyway, he speaks off-the-cuff. However, what we can do is present some of the data for you in this thread, which includes parts of his debate.

Chris started off by going through a fair amount of China-India trade history, from ancient silk road routes, Roman times to WW2. Part of this was the point made that Chinese-Indian trade has been going on for centuries, and that the slow down over the past 60 years due to war and political problems is now coming to an end, and normality of trade between the two countries is in the ascendancy. To demonstrate this he provided copies of old trade routes.

 China to Rome

The Overland Silk Road, with it’s spurs into India – the Uttarapatha route across Northern India and West China, through Bactria and onto Constantinople, and the Dashinpatha Route, which connected from this and brought goods down to the Western ports of India, and then to Arabia and Africa, thus providing a steady stream of Chinese and Indian product through to the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago.

As part of this, samples of 1,500 year old Chinese silk were shown, from sites in North-Western Europe that traveled the Silk Road, in addition to ancient paintings showing Chinese, Indian Buddhist and Muslim traders riding on horseback together.

Old Sea Routes

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