KOLKATA: Bilateral trade between India and China will reach USD 55 billion by the end of December, surpassing the USD 60-billion target for 2010, Chinese Consul-General Mao Siwei said today.

At a seminar here organised by the Asiatic Society Mao said, during the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to China, the two countries had set a trade target of USD 60 billion which would be surpassed.

Recalling External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's recent announcement in Guangzhou that China had become India's largest trading partner, Mao said bilateral trade was a driving force behind Sino-Indian relations.

"I believe that the surge in bilateral trade between India and China is not a chance phenomenon, but the logical result of mutual complementaries in the economic strength of our two countries," he said.

Pointing out that Sino-Indian relations saw a thaw since the 80s after the coldness of the 60s and 70s, Mao said a big leap had been made over the past decade. "My understanding is that the basic consensus that both China and India do not consider each other as a security threat has paved the way for the development of bilateral relations over the last 10 years," the envoy said.

He said, however, some 'outstanding issues' needed to be resolved in further strengthening the Sino-Indian ties.

Blaming the media for maintaining a negative picture of China, he said reports about Chinese incursion into the Indian territory were sensationalised.

"There is a dispute because there is no demarcation of the border." Mao said, however, the agreement between the two sides to appoint special representatives to explore the framework of settlement of the boundary question, was a very positive direction in strengthening bilateral relations.

"During the visit to China by the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in 2003, the two governments singed a memorandum on expanding border trade. In this document the Chinese side recognised that Sikkim is a state of the Indian Union," he said.

Besides, establishment of the Sino-Indian strategic and cooperative partnership, the joint naval excercise off the Shanghai coast in November 2003, resumption of border trade through Nathu-La and opening of new consulates in Guangzhou and Kolkata were other steps that had helped in taking bilateral relations forward, Mao said.

He said under an agreement signed in January 2002, China was providing hydrological information to India on the Bhramaputra, helping to meet the demand of flood control and disaster mitigation downstream of the river.

Since China Eastern Airlines opened its first-ever direct passenger flights to India on March 28, 2002, the number of flights between the two countries stood at 44, including one between Kolkata and Kunming, Mao said. The Chinese consulate in Kolkata which was opened in May this year, had processed about 100 visa applications daily in the first two months of operation, he said.

(Courtesy: PTI)