China, India agree to set up mechanism for trade

NEW DELHI

India and China have agreed to set up a new mechanism for issues relating to trade and investment and felt the two countries should cooperate on important regional and global issues, said India’s foreign secretary on Saturday.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters that Chinese President Xi Jinping is ready to take measures to reduce India’s deficit in the bilateral trade.

On second day of their informal summit in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed various issues including trade and tourism.

The next informal meeting between the two countries will be held in China, Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Gokhale as saying.

“There is a new focus on people to people connect between the two countries," he added.

Replying to a query, Gokhale said: “Kashmir issue was not raised and discussed at the informal summit.”

The two leaders have agreed that both countries should work together to deal with the challenge of terrorism, he added.

Both the leaders had around five-and-half hours of one-to-one meeting spread over two days. It was followed by delegation level talks. After the summit, Chinese president left for Nepal.