Trade mission continues between India and China
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
STEVE CHIOTAKIS: The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is in India today continuing a trade mission there. Agreeing on a target of $100 billion in trade between the Asian powers within the next 5 years.
The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder is in New Delhi and joins us with the latest. Hi Sanjoy.
SANJOY MAJUMDER: Hello.
CHIOTAKIS: What have these two countries been talking about on this trade visit?
MAJUMDER: Primarily, business. They’ve agreed to increase their already considerable trade relationship aiming to cross about $1 billion by 2015. And they’ve also been trying to talk about outstanding political differences.
CHIOTAKIS: How likely is it that these two economies — these are pretty big economies — could combine their strength and compete with the United States?
MAJUMDER: It’s something I think they both recognize and are working towards. They have very complimentary strengths. Chinese are leaders in manufacturing, Indians of course in services and IT and back-office applications. Together they can make a formidable team and already we’ve seen them come together on a number of issues around the world — world trade talks and climate change for instance.
CHIOTAKIS: Relations between China and India haven’t always been that good, Sanjoy. What are some stumbling blocks to those two getting together?
MAJUMDER: A number of issues — a long bitter border row which has yet to be resolved. The Chinese don’t like the presence of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in India, and of course the two countries are competing regionally to become regional powers which in some ways pits them against each other.
CHIOTAKIS: The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumbder, in New Dehli, Sanjoy, thanks.
MAJUMDER: OK.
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