China seeks India's cooperation in various multilateral forums

China has sought India’s cooperation in various multilateral forums as part of its economic revival agenda. Such a co-operation was sought when Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here on Thursday on the sidelines of the annual Spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, sources said.

It was Lou who had sought a meeting with Jaitley and during the meeting held here, the Chinese Finance Minister and other senior officials tried to impress upon that their economy is doing well and is back on track, sources familiar with the conversation between the two leaders said.

During the meeting, Lou repeatedly underscored the “greater need of India and China to have a coordinated action” in various multilateral forums.

While the issue of Masood Azhar, was not raised by Jaitley during the meeting given that it has been taken up at the highest level by India, the Indian delegation is believed to have made it clear to the Chinese leadership that Beijing needs to take into consideration India’s national security and economic interests for such a cooperation to move forward.

On March 31, China again blocked India’s bid to ban the mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack Masood in the UN Sanctions Committee, following which India had reacted strongly.

The Chinese leadership during the IMF World Bank meetings have taken a stand that it is against isolating or naming any particular country. “We are not in favour of isolating or naming any country,” the members of the Chinese delegation are believed to have said multiple times during the series of multilateral meetings taking place on the sidelines of the spring meetings.

This is why Chinese opposed the idea of mentioning Panama when it came to Panama papers and tax havens, sources said. During these meetings, the Chinese leadership has been underscoring that their economy is back on track and in the first quarter they had a growth rate of 6.7 per cent. There was a keen emphasis that growth is back in China, a source familiar with these meetings said.

During the meetings the Chinese leadership is understood to have said that they have made certain changes to transform the economy. Among other things, Lou is believed to have told Jaitley China is going to cut production in steel and coal where they have now surplus capacities. The surplus has resulted in a global problem.