Terrorist Masood Azhar being listed as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council is undoubtedly a huge diplomatic win for India. China, which had blocked Azhar’s listing as global terrorist four times, finally dropped its objections.
Azhar, chief of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), was behind the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 Indian soldiers were killed in February. Now that the diplomatic coup d’état has been achieved, it makes sense to focus on Sino-Indian trade relations.
The bilateral trade between India and China was recorded at $84.44 billion in 2017, despite tensions over Doklam. According to data of the Chinese General Administration of Customs, a rare novelty of the bilateral trade otherwise dominated by Chinese exports was about 40 per cent increase of Indian exports to China in 2017 totalling to $16.34 billion.
The bilateral trade in 2017 rose by 18.63 per cent year-on-year to reach $84.44 billion. Despite it still being short by about $20 billion, officials on both sides are optimistic. Notably, bilateral trade stagnated around $70 billion for several years despite leaders of both the countries setting $100 billion as the target for 2015.
Importantly, the trade deficit continues to remain high at $51.75 billion in 2017. According to India’s trade figures, the deficit had crossed $52 billion last year and New Delhi has been pressing China to open the IT and pharmaceutical sectors for Indian firms to reduce the massive trade deficit. With India not participating in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), ruffled feathers in Beijing need to be ironed out urgently.
Azhar, important as he is, can be tackled by India, because at the end of the day, the significance of his presence in Pakistan, should be lower down pecking than the prospects of boosting Sino-Indian trade.