Qingdao SCO Summit: India, China sign MoUs on Brahmaputra river, rice export

Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other world leaders on Saturday took part in the 18th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Qingdao, China. This is the first time that India participated in the two-day-long Summit as the full member of SCO.

Post delegation-level talks, PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping signed two bilateral agreements on the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. While the first MoU was regarding Brahmaputra River the other one was on the export of rice from India to China.

China's Ministry of Water Resources and India's Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and, Ganga Rejuvenation signed the first MoU. Going by the agreement, China will now provide hydrological information to India regarding the Brahmaputra River during the flood season.

The second MoU was signed between China's General Administration of Customs and India's Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare. Under the agreement, the 2006 Protocol on Phytosanitary Requirements for exporting rice from India to China has been amended to include the export of non-Basmati varieties of rice from India.

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Following the exchange of MoUs, President Jinping accepted PM Modi's invitation to have a similar informal summit in India in 2019, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said in a media briefing on Saturday.

"It was a substantive meeting; President Xi Jinping began by making a positive assessment of Wuhan summit. He described it as 'a new starting point' in our bilateral relations. PM described it as 'milestone in our relations'," Gokhale was quoted by media as saying.

"New people to people mechanism will be set up. On the Indian side, it will be headed by EAM Sushma Swaraj and on the Chinese side, it will be headed by state council and foreign minister Wang Yi. The first meeting of this mechanism will be held later this year," the Foreign Secy concluded.

#WATCH: MEA addresses media on PM Modi's first day of his visit to Qingdao https://t.co/s4vVIcOSRo

— ANI (@ANI) June 9, 2018

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A special event by Chinese artists was also witnessed by all the leaders, along with Modi on sidelines of the two-day annual SCO summit.

In 2001, the SCO was founded at a Shanghai Summit by the presidents of Russia, China, Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its members in 2017.