Date: 21 May 2013
Venue: Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi
Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) in collaboration with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), hosted an address by H E Mr. Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China on 21 May 2013 at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi. The welcome remarks were made by Shri Sidharth Birla, Senior Vice President of FICCI. Mr. Birla admired the vision expressed by Premier Li Keqiang that "Sino-Indian ties would be the most important bilateral partnership of the century".
Shri Salman Khurshid, Hon'ble External Affairs Minister of India, presided over the function and described Premier Li's visit to India as "historic".
Premier Li Keqiang, started his address by recalling the memories of his trip to India 27 years ago as a leader of a youth delegation. He talked about a wide range of subjects concerning India-China relations and China's domestic situation.
Premier Li Keqiang quoted a Chinese proverb 'a distant relative may not be as useful as a near neighbour' to emphasize the importance of China's bilateral relations with India. Highlighting that there are "far more common interests than differences", Premier Li noted that both countries have the wisdom to find mutually acceptable solution to the boundary issue.
On the issue of trade imbalances he said that the two countries have the ability to mitigate the trade imbalance and China never has any intention to seek trade surplus. He also emphasized the need to increase people-to-people interaction between the two countries, and declared 2014 as the year of exchanges between India and China.
While discussing China’s domestic situation briefly, Premier Li expressed his concern over significant gaps between different regions of China and maintained that the development of China's western region will create more opportunities.
Premier Li thanked ICWA for thoughtful arrangements and appreciated its contribution.
Shri H. K. Dua proposed the Vote of Thanks and said that the address by Premier Li under the auspices of ICWA and FICCI has brought both the institutions great honour.
The event was attended by Diplomatic Corps, representatives of Indian civil society, scholars, officials and people from business and media community.