China Voice: Closer China-Indian ties a blessing for region, world

Strengthening the strategic partnership between China and India will not just boost the world's two largest emerging economies but also bode well for the region and the world.

With a combined population of 2.5 billion, the common development of the two nations itself is good news.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's meeting with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Xi'an, capital city of Shaanxi Province, on Thursday, Xi proposed that the two economies should complement each other more and continue to be two growth engines to shore up regional and world economic development.

With China and India being neighboring ancient civilizations with a long-standing history of cultural exchange, bilateral ties must also be seen from a long-term perspective.

China-India relations are developing stably and facing broad prospects, as evidenced by expanding trade volumes over the last decade, with China already the largest trading partner of India.

The bilateral trade volume has grown from 4.95 billion U.S. dollars in 2002 to about 70 billion U.S. dollars in 2014.

During Xi's visit to India in September, the two sides reached consensus on forging a closer partnership. Improvements are expected to be made in this direction during Modi's reciprocal three-day visit.

The potential for further cooperation between the two Asian giants is huge and the two countries have set a target of increasing their annual bilateral trade volume to 100 billion dollars by 2015.

China is increasing its imports from India and it has pledged to increase its investment in Indian industrial and infrastructure projects to 20 billion U.S. dollars in five years.

Recently, new opportunities for deepening cooperation on the regional and global stage have emerged. The two countries could strengthen communication on the Belt and Road Initiative and Modi's "Act East" policy and hone a mode of cooperation with reciprocal benefit.

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative is already making headway in several nations. The plan refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, international trade and infrastructure projects proposed by China in 2013.

China and Belarus have agreed to build an industrial park near Minsk as a model for the Silk Road Economic Belt. Meanwhile, China and Russia have agreed to integrate the Silk Road Economic Belt with Russia's vision of a trade and infrastructure network across Eurasia.

If the two most populated nations can find areas of common interest related to the initiative, both Asia and the world will benefit.

It is noteworthy that China and India are among the 21 nations to sign a memorandum of understanding to found the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, an international financing institution, in Beijing in October.

The two neighbors also cooperate closely in other multilateral platforms including BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

A closer partnership will help China and India further tap their cooperation potential and contribute to a fairer international order.

As two neighbors that enjoy growing influence in both Asia and the world, China and India may usher in an Asian Century if they can closely dock with each other's development strategies and control disputes. Endi