Can Modi and Xi strike the right economic and military chords this time for India and China?

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau at the Belt and Road Summit in 2017. (File photo)
For picture text, go to http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news.php?id=103502&sid=4
Local | 27 Feb 2018 7:34 pm
Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah said the proposed action by the US government to introduce 23.6 percent tariff on imports of aluminum from Hong Kong is unilateral and discriminatory and based on unfounded allegations. In his remarks today, Yau pointed out that the city had a trade deficit exceeding US$27 billion in 2016 with the US. "Hong Kong's export of aluminum products at most constituted about HK$30 million. So, as a percentage, that accounted for just a very tiny fraction, not up to 0.2 percent of the total import of aluminum into the US,” he said. Yau urged the US government to take a serious look at the whole matter and to stop such discriminatory action.
Hong Kong will defend its interests amid US-China trade war, minister vows
Commerce secretary Edward Yau says city will act to protect its business partners, though this does not mean it will serve US interests
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 26 April, 2018, 9:26am
UPDATED : Thursday, 26 April, 2018, 4:43pm
Hong Kong’s trade minister has vowed that the city will continue to be a free and open place to do business, though he said this did not mean it would serve the interests of the US, which is inching closer to an all-out trade dispute with China. As an independent member of the World Trade Organisation, Hong Kong would speak up to defend its interests, Edward Yau Tang-wah warned on Wednesday. The commerce chief was responding to comments by the top US envoy to Hong Kong, who on Tuesday said he was seeking to ease worries that the city would be a “voiceless victim” of the escalating trade friction between China and the United States. Instead, Consul General Kurt Tong said during a lunch at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, “the current situation presents a real opportunity for Hong Kong to demonstrate its lasting value as a transformative portal linking China and the rest of the world economy” … for more, go to http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2143373/hong-kong-will-defend-its-interests-amid-us-china-trade-war 

Can Modi and Xi strike the right economic and military chords this time for India and China?

KUALA LUMPUR (April 2018): The Reuters news titled “India, China to court each other at informal summit in bid to re-set ties” as posted by The Star Online is refreshing indeed for the rest of the world.

Since the sanction and tariff-slapping Donald Trump started the global trade war, there had been a dearth of positive news reports that points to some hope of sanity to return.

India is no small nation in terms of population and a China-India trade pact will no doubt deal a death knell to the war-waging US.

Unforturnately for the rest of the world, India today is pro-US, no thanks to Pakistan.

However, China’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt Road Initiative (BRI) does not rely on India to succeed. It already has the support of 69 cities and nations in constructing the infrastructure needed to boost trans border trade and business.

But, if India and China do strike a pact to promote BRI, the US would be significantly alienated from the rest of the world in the economy.

And, the Americans have only their President Trump to thank for their domestic and international economic woes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is reportedly flying to the Chinese city of Wuhan for two days of talks with President Xi Jinping from today (Friday, April 27) aimed at ending decades of distrust that has deepened as China, with an economy five times bigger than India's, asserts itself in the region.

And BRI is also expected to feature prominently in their discussions.

Here’s the Reuters report as posted by The Star Online:

"India, China to court each other at informal summit in bid to re-set ties

WORLD
Thursday, 26 Apr 2018
4:20 PM MYT
by sanjeev miglani and ben blanchard

NEW DELHI/BEIJING (Reuters) - The leaders of India and China are set to make their boldest attempt yet at rapprochement in talks this week just months after a dispute over a stretch of their high-altitude Himalayan border rekindled fears of war.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is flying to the Chinese city of Wuhan for two days of talks with President Xi Jinping from Friday, mostly without aides, officials say, aimed at ending decades of distrust that has deepened as China, with an economy five times bigger than India's, asserts itself in the region.

Their differences are significant: as well as disputes over stretches of a 3,500 km (2,200 miles) border, the Asian giants are bumping up against each other in the Indian Ocean and squabbling over Xi's signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

India signalled as recently as Tuesday its opposition to the grand trade and transport plan because one of its branches runs through Pakistani-administered Kashmir, which India claims.

At the same time, pressure over trade that U.S. President Donald Trump has put on China is driving its efforts to improve ties with others facing the heat from Trump, including India.

China needs to get India on its side, said Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceania Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a state-backed think-tank.

"As far as the United States is concerned, the Indo-Pacific is crucial, and for China, the Indo-Pacific is aimed at China. So China needs to win India over as much as possible," Hu said.

Both sides have stressed this is an informal meeting rather than a summit - without the pomp and flag-waving children - as a way, hopefully, get more done.

"It can provide a comfortable atmosphere for the two countries' leaders to have full and deep exchanges on important issues of mutual concern," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, days after the announcement of Modi's trip, which will be followed by another to China in June for a regional conference.

Chinese state television said in a commentary that often, more gets done at informal meetings, when people can speak their minds. It pointed to the success of informal talks Xi had with then-U.S. President Barack Obama in 2013 in California.

Indian officials said there was no agenda and the two would likely address "misunderstandings" that had festered for years and escalated into a 73-day military face-off on a wind-swept Himalayan plateau last year.

"There is a realisation on both sides that we need greater communication at the highest political level," said an Indian government source.

'NOT A THREAT'

Both countries have recently sought to accommodate each other's concerns.

Last month, India issued an unprecedented ban on Tibetans holding a rally with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi to mark the 60th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

China regards the Tibetan spiritual leader who lives in exile in an Indian hill town as a dangerous separatist.

For its part, India was pleased when China dropped its objections to international efforts to put India's arch foe, Pakistan, on a "grey list" of counties deemed to be making inadequate efforts to tackle terrorist financing.

China has long stood by Pakistan with political and military support, a sore issue for India which accuses Pakistan of harbouring terrorists. Pakistan denies that.

Ahead of the talks, China reassured Pakistan their relations were as firm as ever and would "never rust".

The stakes are high for the world's two most populous countries, which went to war in 1962 and continue to ramp up forces on either side of their border.

China claims more than 90,000 sq km (35,000 sq miles) ruled by India in the eastern Himalayas. India says China occupies 38,000 sq km (14,600 sq miles) of its territory on the Aksai Chin plateau in the west.

Wang Dehua, director of the Centre for South Asia Studies at Shanghai's Tongji University, said the talks should help heal the wounds of last year's border dispute.

"The Indian people should recognise that China is not a threat. Improving ties has only advantages for India," Wang told the official Jiefang Daily.

(Additional reporting by Gao Liangping in BEIJING; Editing by Robert Birsel)"