Following the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, the Ministry of External Affairs clarified that the discussion was bilateral in nature.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, while responding to a question on whether Modi and Xi discussed the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs, said though the two leaders were mindful of international developments, they focused on bilateral issues, including improving the economic and commercial ties between India and China.
"The focus of the discussion remained in the bilateral domain. Of course, they recognise what’s happening on the international plane and the challenges it creates, but they tried to see how to leverage that for building greater understanding between themselves and how to take forward the economic and commercial relationship between India and China in the midst of these evolving challenges," said Misri.
He also pointed out that there is a deficit in how the World Trade Organisation and even the United Nations works. "These are obviously common interests for two countries, such as India and China, that are large actors on the international, commercial, economic, and financial stage…" he said.
Misri said both Modi and Xi recognised how the Indian and Chinese economies can stabilise world trade, while emphasising the need to proceed from a political and strategic direction to expand bilateral trade and investment ties and reduce trade deficit.
This comes as The New York Times claimed on Saturday that US President Donald Trump is not planning to visit India for the Quad Summit later this year amid strains in ties over 50 per cent tariffs imposed on New Delhi.