Thaindian News

Beijing, Dec 14 (IANS) The border issue will be on the agenda, said an official who stressed that “no issues are off the table” when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits India Dec 15-17. Wen is scheduled to visit India before leaving for Pakistan on a two-day visit.

Jiabao’s visit to India is expected to yield a number of commercial deals that will help smooth trade relations between the two emerging economies, China Daily Tuesday quoted an official as saying.

The Chinese premier will be accompanied by a large delegation of over 100 senior business leaders, Liang Wentao, deputy director of the Department of Asian Affairs at the commerce ministry, told mediapersons here.

Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue said that Wen will meet Indian President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and India’s ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during his visit.

“No issues are off the table,” Hu was quoted as saying.

He said that Beijing and New Delhi have cooperated in multilateral frameworks like the G20 and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

Hu said the border issue is also on the agenda during the visit. China and India share a 2,000-km border.

In New Delhi, Peng Gang, commercial counsellor at the Chinese embassy in India, told the daily that the two countries are expected to sign over 30 deals focusing mainly on iron ore, biochemical products and fabrics.

The deals to be signed would be worth $20 billion.

China is India’s biggest trading partner and the value of bilateral trade is expected to pass $60 billion next year, a 30-fold increase since 2000. The balance of trade is heavily in China’s favour.