Modi to hold informal talks with Xi in China this week
TWODAY VISIT to discuss strengthening of ‘closer developmental partnership’ BEIJING:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping will meet in China’s Wuhan city for an informal summit to strengthen bilateral ties on April 27 and 28.
“It’s a new landmark in the China and India history,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said at a joint press conference with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in Beijing on Sunday.
Swaraj said the summit will provide an opportunity for the two sides to discuss bilateral ties, international matters and improve communication. She said the two leaders will discuss the strengthening of “closer developmental partnership”.
The announcement about Modi’s visit was made after Swaraj held key talks with Wang as the two countries continue efforts to get their relationship back on track following the Doklam face-off. Besides laying the groundwork for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in June, Swaraj and Wang are expected to take stock of bilateral ties.
Modi’s visit to China before the SCO Summit would send a clear signal that both countries are serious about resetting their relations, plagued by multiple festering issues such as a border dispute and damaged further by last year’s military standoff near the Sikkim border.
It will also give an opportunity to Modi and Xi to chart a course for the future as they negotiate old and new differences.
Swaraj, who reached Beijing on Saturday night, is officially here to attend the SCO foreign ministers’ meet on Tuesday in the run-up to the bloc’s summit in the coastal city of Qingdao in June. India and Pakistan were admitted to the China-led bloc in 2017.
Her visit to Beijing – the first after Wang’s promotion to the rank of state councillor last month – is being seen as a crucial component in efforts by the two