Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived here today for talks with her Chinese counterpart as part of preparations for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India later this month which is expected to be dominated by trade and investment initiatives.
Sitharaman will take part in the Joint Economic Group meeting tomorrow along with her Chinese counterpart Gao Hucheng with talks focussing on Chinese participation in infrastructure projects in India, specially the industrial parks as well as modernisation of railways.
The talks would take place in the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan which also focussed on investments from Japan besides the bullet trains. China is also keen to construct the high speed rail network on build, operate and maintenance basis.
Xi is due to visit New Delhi in the third week of this month as part of his first tour to the sub-continent during which he would also visit Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
A Chinese team is currently visiting India to finalise locations for the first Chinese Industrial Park which was expected to be announced by Xi during his visit.
India also wants China's expertise in modernising its ageing railways, specially to upgrade the tracks to improve the speed to about 160 km besides renovation of railway stations with modern facilities.
The talks would cover a broad trade agenda, including China's plans to address India's concerns of mounting trade deficit which is currently averaging around USD 35 billion per annum.
India's trade deficit with China mounted to USD 8.84 billion in the first three months of this year out of total trade volume of USD 21.98 billion.
The bilateral trade amounted to USD 65.47 in 2013 with trade deficit totalling to USD 31.42 billion.
This is Sitharaman's second visit to China after she took over as Commerce Minister. She held talks with Gao when she came to China with Vice President Hamid Ansari in June.
The two sides have already signed an MOU outlining a broad framework for the parks.
India wants China to set up four such parks, while China wants to make a beginning with one park.
Discussions were expected to be focussed on the products China wants to manufacture in the parks while Chinese officials maintained the quantum of the investment would be announced by Xi during his visit.
Besides this, the two Commerce Ministers were expected to review overall bilateral trade which is on the decline and measures needed to meet the USD 100 billion target by next year.
India has been asking China to open its markets to Indian IT and pharmaceuticals besides agricultural products.
