Speech titled "India and China in the 21st Century" by the PrimeMinister at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing
"We will do it the Asian way--avoiding confrontation and building trust, confidence and consensus," said the PM even as he cautioned about the "extremism of all types, whether in the garb of religion or on the pretext of righting historical wrongs".
Speech titled "India and China in the 21st Century" by the PrimeMinister at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing
First, we must bridge the "knowledge gap" between India and China. Weneed to make much more sustained effort to ensure proper awareness of eachother. This not only applies to our culture and history but also to contemporarydevelopments. We need to have more people to people contacts to removemisconceptions and prejudices. We need a broad based comprehensive dialogue atthe level of intelligentsia, media, non-governmental professionals and theworlds of culture and the arts.
Second, we need to expand our cooperation in a broad range of functionalsectors. This could include learning from each other’s national developmentalexperiences. We would like to learn from China’s success in the creation ofphysical infrastructure, strategies to provide productive employment outside theagriculture sector, and poverty alleviation. Other areas for potentialcooperation are science and technology, public health, education, institutionbuilding, water resource management and disaster management.
Third, we should harness our complementarities and synergies in the areas oftrade and business. India’s growing consumer market, skilled human resources,and software excellence together with China’s own large market, itsmanufacturing prowess and cost competitiveness provide the platform forexponential growth in our economic ties. China is already the second largesttrading partner of India. Yesterday, we agreed to set a bilateral trade targetof 60 billion US dollars by the year 2010.
Asia is today more integrated than ever before in terms of trade in goods andservices and investment of capital and knowledge. In the East Asian Summit andother fora, we are discussing several constructive ideas for an open inclusiveeconomic architecture from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. We look forward toworking with China in this pursuit. I have spoken before of an Asian EconomicCommunity and am glad that progress is being made in that direction.
In pursuing these initiatives we will do it the Asian way--avoidingconfrontation and building trust, confidence and consensus. It is only in anenvironment of peace that prosperity in Asia can be sustained. India and Chinahave an important role to play in building peace, security and stability in theregion.
At the global level, our two countries should be at the forefront of theemergence of a more democratic global order and of multilateral approaches toresolving global issues. Today’s international institutions, like the UNSecurity Council, no longer reflect reality and must be democratised.
We have had useful experience of cooperating in the effort to bring about asuccessful conclusion of the Doha Development Round of the WTO negotiations,placing the development dimension at its heart. This experience enables us tointensify our efforts to create a more open and equitable trading and financialarchitecture.
The environment is humanity’s common heritage. The rights of our people to afair chance to improve their lot cannot be abandoned because of environmentaldamage caused by others who followed a path which has squandered the earth’sresources.
Burden sharing has to be fair and must take into account historical emissions.The recently concluded Bali Conference provides a framework for futurecooperation on this basis. India and China should continue to work together tostrengthen international cooperation on this basis.
The rapid growth of India and China will lead to expanding demand for energy. Wehave no choice but to widen our options for energy availability and developviable strategies for energy security. We can do much more to jointly developclean and energy efficient technologies through collaborative research anddevelopment. India seeks international cooperation in the field of civiliannuclear energy, including with China.
Another area which merits our attention is food security. Global trends in foodproduction and prices, and changing patterns of consumption are going to putincreasing pressure on the availability and prices of basic food items. Thesetrends pose major challenges for how we manage our food economy in the yearsahead. Our interests are common and we can learn from each other in thestrategies we follow.