First India-China economic summit keeps studied silence on trade deficit

The first economic summit between India and China this week was supposed to be an opportunity for India to press Beijing for some concessions on India's yawning trade deficit with the PRC — though the main stated goal was doubling bilateral trade.  But it turns out that nothing much emerged from behind closed doors at the meeting, suggesting that India's negotiators are no better than America's when it comes to chatting with Beijing.

Here's India's Business Standard newspaper:

After conducting what was officially described as "an in-depth and frank exchange of views on the world economic situation, respective domestic macro-economic situations, the goals and implementation of the mid- and long-term economic and social development plans of the two countries as well as their respective industrial, fiscal and monetary policies", the two sides agreed to "enhance pragmatic co-operation in economic sectors".

The communiqué did not define what was meant by "pragmatic co-operation". Apart from ensuring that their own economies continue to grow, neither was able to spell out what else they could do, either jointly or on their own, to manage the current bleak global economic situation which, both agreed, was worrisome.