NEW DELHI, May 21: Visiting Premier Li Keqiang promised on Tuesday to open China’s vast domestic market wider to India and forge a ‘dynamic trade balance’ to deepen economic ties and ease tensions between the Asian giants.

The trade push, which the countries say will supply ‘new engines’ to lift the stumbling global economy, came amid efforts by the nuclear-armed powers to put a military dispute along their disputed Himalayan border behind them.

“We have the ability to mitigate the trade imbalance between our two countries,” Mr Li told business leaders in New Delhi, responding to Indian worries over trade that was heavily skewed in China’s favour.

“The Chinese side is willing to provide facilitation for more Indian products to access the Chinese market,” added Mr Li, who chose to make India his first foreign stop after taking office two months ago.

He also said China was willing to “launch negotiations on a China-India regional trading arrangement” but did not elaborate.

China is India’s biggest trading partner, with two-way commerce totalling $67.8 billion in the last fiscal year to March 2013, up from $2.1bn in 2001-02.

But India’s trade deficit with its neighbour soared to $40.7bn last year from just $1bn in 2001-02, Indian figures showed.Mr Li said he wanted a “dynamic trade balance” as the neighbours aimed to raise two-way trade to $100bn by 2015, and said they had “huge markets with huge potential”.

But previous Chinese commitments have failed to narrow the imbalance.

“The two countries must now take corrective steps,” B.G. Verghese, fellow at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, said and added the balancing process could take five to seven years.

“There must be market access on the Chinese side and the Indians must produce the manufactured goods the Chinese need,” he said, adding deeper trade involvement brought “deeper vested interest in all-round stability”.—AFP