A new top-level mechanism will be established to sort out the concerns pertaining to the bilateral trade issues between India and China, said Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale.

The elevated mechanism represented by Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua will discuss on how to reduce the trade deficit, improving bilateral investments and manufacturing.

He also said official level actions will be taken in both the countries in less than a year to fructify the decisions taken at the two informal India-China Summits held till now.

The bilateral trade between India and China is about $87 billion.

According to Gokhale, the Chinese President had told Modi that his country invites Indian investments in pharmaceutical and information technology sectors.

Xi also assured Modi that India’s concern on trade issues will be taken into account.

The two leaders had a conversation for almost 90 minutes on Saturday followed by delegation-level talks and then a lunch was hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A total of six hours of one-one-one meeting was held between the two leaders during the second informal summit.

The Foreign Secretary further said that the Kashmir issue was neither raised nor discussed during the meet.

“Our position is anyways very clear that this is an internal matter of India,” he asserted.

India had already ruled out any scope of discussion between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the Kashmir issue, asserting that all countries, including Beijing, have been told categorically and clearly that abrogation of Article 370 is totally an “internal matter” of New Delhi.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had on Wednesday said that he was watching the situation in Kashmir and would support Pakistan in issues related to its core interests.

However, India reiterated its stance that other countries must stay away from commenting on the “internal matters” of the country.

Gokhale further said that the Chinese President spoke of greater facilitation for pilgrims going to the Mansarovar Yatra and Prime Minister Modi suggested a number of ideas on the connection between state of Tamil Nadu and the Fujian province of China.

Both the leaders also agreed that it was important to deal with the challenges of terrorism and radicalisation in an increasingly complex world, Gokhale said.

Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping has invited PM Modi to China for the next summit. Modi has accepted the invitation. Dates will be finalised later.

At the delegation-level talks with China’s Xi Jinping, PM Modi said that the China vision has helped in starting a “new chapter in our relationship”. “Had in-depth discussions on bilateral relations. We decided not to allow disputes to be created,” Modi said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping held their second round of informal talks after the two leaders on Friday bonded over a tour of the temples of Mahabalipuram.