Beijing, China: January 14, 2008 – India and China have signed ll wide-ranging agreements, to enhance the trade by three times in four years and shall also exchange military exercises and other defence matter.

Both Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao, also agreed to dissolve the outstanding border dispute so as to strengthening their relations, which are more important for both the countries.

Manmohan Singh later called the statement "an important milestone in the evolution of our relations".

The most important decision taken was no doubt to set an ambitious two-way trade target of $60 billion by 2010 - reflecting their confidence to make business the primary idiom and pivot of rapidly expanding ties.

The most important decision taken was no doubt to set an ambitious two-way trade target of $60 billion by 2010 - reflecting their confidence to make business the primary idiom and pivot of rapidly expanding ties.

The previous target of $40 billion by 2010 is expected to be reached this year itself while the target of $20 billion for 2008 was reached in 2006. Manmohan Singh, in his address at the China -India Business Summit earlier in the day, said both countries needed to have a "strategic plan" as they "stand poised to regain their weight in the global economy".

Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath echoed similar sentiments when he talked about the looming prospect of Indian and Chinese business setting the economic agenda of the world within a decade - after a long period of Western dominance best exemplified by the dictum "when America sneezed, the rest of the world caught a cold".