Xi set to visit for meeting with Modi

NEW DELHI: Chinese President Xi Jinping is coming to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow, just weeks after China supported Pakistan in raising the issue of India’s recent actions in disputed Kashmir at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

India stripped Kashmir’s semiautonomous status in August, deploying thousands of troops and cutting off internet connectivity to prevent protests. Thousands of people, including mainstream political leaders and young people, have also been detained.

The Himalayan region of Kashmir is claimed by both Pakistan and India and split between them.

At the UN, China said India should not act unilaterally on Kashmir, a portion of which China also controls, and where there have been occasional border skirmishes between India and China.

On Oct 31, New Delhi will take direct control of Ladakh, the border region famous for its sparsely populated and stunning landscapes, Buddhist monks in mountaintop monasteries and elusive snow leopards prowling rugged terrain.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs said yesterday that Mr Xi and Mr Modi will meet in the southern coastal city of Chennai tomorrow and Saturday to “exchange views on deepening’’ the two countries’ development.

They will also visit the nearby temple town of Mamallapuram.

Mr Xi and Mr Modi last met oneon-one at a resort in Wuhan, China, in April 2018.

Indian security forces have detained 10 Tibetan activists, including noted novelist and poet Tenzin Tsundue, near Chennai to stifle any protests during Mr Xi’s visit, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Regional police in the southern state of Tamil Nadu also have asked more than a dozen Tibetan students to sign statements promising not to engage in activities that may “commit a breach of the peace or disturb the public tranquility’,’ according to a photo of the document provided by the Tibetan Students’ Association of Madras. Two leaders of the student association were among those detained on Sunday.

Dr Tenzin Norbu, an English lecturer at Hindustan College in Chennai, was also arrested on Tuesday and remains in custody. Pre-emptive detentions are not uncommon in India.