India's Trade and Industry Minister Kamal Nath talked to Debasish Roy Chowdhury on a host of issues, including the importance of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's just-concluded visit to China. Below are excerpts:

Q. Why is Manmohan Singh's trip to China so significant?

A. Two countries with cross-cultural relations, two countries on growth trajectories are coming even closer, with massive global ramifications. The 20th century was the century of the West, the 21st century is the century of the East; this is the century of Asia, and you can't talk about Asia without India and China. So this visit is a turning point of the center of gravity of global economy.

Q. Why is it more than a getting-to-know-each-other visit?

A. India and China have known each other for ages. It's now about learning from each other, learning in a new context. It's a continuous process. It's a reaffirmation of what India and China have always been: friends. There can't be any status quo in this relationship. They can only move closer.

Q. What has been the biggest gain of the visit?

A. The biggest gain has been the expression and reaffirmation of the desire to engage in many more ways. In economic terms, we have set targets. We also forged cultural relations and defense ties - today our militaries are cooperating, we are having joint exercises. But the biggest gain was the reaffirmation of our desire to increase people-to-people contact.

Q. Apart from strengthening of ties, what were the other tangible gains of the visit?

A. Well, we set new targets. By 2010, we have set a target of $60 billion in annual trade, making China India's largest trading partner. But most importantly, we sent out the signal to the world that India and China are joining forces and will be setting best global practices.

Q. What do you find most striking about China and the Chinese people?

A. China has demonstrated to the world how to transform oneself from a closed to an open economy. It has excelled in whatever it has taken up, whether it's in the cultural field, industry, sports, or academics.

Q. Why are Chinese businesses doing so well?

A. Chinese businesses are doing extremely well (because) they have established the country as a manufacturing base, they have established that their ability to adopt and adapt to is tremendous. The Chinese commitment to hard work is unparalleled. Indians are very hardworking, too, but the discipline of the Chinese is definitely praiseworthy.

Q. You have said India and China are working together to create a new "architecture and pattern" of multilateral negotiations. Would you like to elaborate?

A. It's because of the cooperation and coordination between India and China that various groupings, like the G20 and G33, have emerged in the WTO and the multilateral negotiating pattern has changed. Earlier, a handful of countries would set the international trade agenda and rules of the game. Now India and China have given a hundred other countries a voice by coming together.

Q. Which trade areas can China and India expand considerably ?

A. I would say software, manufactured and value-added goods. India and China can cooperate in energy and construction - in India and in third countries. China and India are also looking at trade in Olympic facilities. A lot of the facilities that China is building will be dismantled after the Games, such as tracks. India can buy them and use them for the Commonwealth Games. India is ready to buy from China these non-permanent facilities. It makes great sense for both. We can also cooperate in hydropower.

Q. Are you looking at any specific product?

A. Not really, the items can range from engineering to chemical products. There are so many manufactured goods in which we have a competitive advantage. We are looking at huge machinery items that China doesn't make; we are also looking at automobiles, which India is making very competitively.

Q. How are India and China coordinating at multilateral negotiations?

A. We always discuss among ourselves before taking a position. Sometimes it may purely pertain to India and not concern China at all, and vice-versa. But we stand by each other. Take for example the issue of reduction of tariffs - India and China always take a unified position. Or for that matter, CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) TRIPS, like disclosure in CBD. India is very rich in biodiversity. China always backs India when it comes to CBD TRIPS.

India on the other hand backs China as a newly acceded (WTO) member. We maintain that China should get concessions in the WTO. They had to take many steps, such as reduction in tariffs, as a newly acceded member. What China did was equivalent to several Uruguay rounds. This was the price China had to pay to join the WTO. China rightly says that as a newly acceded member it should not be made mandatory for it to do what other members are required to do.

In industrial goods, China's tariffs are very low. But China doesn't demand in the WTO that India's tariffs be reduced. That's because China knows India has a weaker manufacturing sector. So we coordinate our positions.

Q. China has put a lot of stress on energy conservation. Is India planning to import these technologies from China?

A. We are sharing the learning process. Our shared experience is the repository of knowledge for the whole world because the numbers are so large.

(China Daily 01/17/2008 )