MODI IN CHINA, WILL MEET XI TOMORROW ON BRICS SIDELINES

XIAMEN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the raindrenched southeastern coastal city of Xiamen on Sunday night for the 9th BRICS summit in the backdrop of a much anticipated meeting with President Xi Jinping following the resolution of the two-month Doklam standoff last week.

When Modi meets Xi on Tuesday at the end of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit, it will be the first time the two leaders will have a one-on-one after the resolution of the military impasse that had plunged bilateral ties to a new chill. The bilateral meeting will be Modi’s last engagement in China before he flies to Myanmar for a state visit. On Monday, Modi will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin followed by a meeting with President Michael Temer of Brazil.

Modi’s schedule also includes a meeting with the President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt on Tuesday morning: Egypt is one of the five counties — Mexico, Guinea, Thailand and Tajikistan — invited to take part in a meeting on the sidelines of BRICS.

China’s assistant foreign minister, Kong Xuanyu received Modi at the airport while a small gathering of Indians from Xiamen gathered at the hotel to greet him. Modi has a tight schedule before he flies off to Myanmar on September 5. He will address the BRICS leaders’ dialogue with “BRICS Business Council”, which will be attended by 80 “Fortune 500” companies.

He will also meet the president of the New Development Bank, KV Kamath.

He will also take part in an event of the “Emerging Markets and Developing Countries’ Dialogue” on Tuesday morning.

The meeting between Modi and Xi, of course, will be closely followed as the two leaders are expected to lay the groundwork to work towards better ties after the standoff in the Doklam area near the Sikkim border has left the two countries grappling with tenuous ties already marred by a 3500-km boundary problem, besides a number of other issues.