India and China seek to reset ties
Modi and Xi to meet in Wuhan this week as rapprochement efforts gather pace
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China this week for an informal meeting with President Xi Jinping, as efforts at rapprochement gather pace following a testing year in ties between the two giant neighbours.
The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said the two will meet on Friday and Saturday in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
“Our common interests far outweigh our differences. The two countries have no choice other than pursuing everlasting friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development,” Wang told reporters after meeting Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in Beijing.
“The summit will go a long way towards deepening the mutual trust between the two great neighbours,” he added. “We will make sure that the informal summit will be a complete success and a new milestone in the history of China-India relations.”
Modi has sought to reset ties after disputes over issues including their disputed border with Tibet and other issues.
Our common interests far outweigh our differences. The two countries have no choice other than pursuing everlasting friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development.”
Wang Yi | Top Chinese diplomat
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a summit in China’s Wuhan city from April 27 to 28 for a “heart-to-heart” chat to explore a new paradigm for India-China ties and find ways to address contentious issues such as the border dispute.
Conceived on the lines of the ice-breaking visit undertaken by late Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988 and his farreaching talks with China’s paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, setting a new tone for the relations after the 1962 war, the XiModi dialogue in the central Chinese city of Wuhan was aimed at working a new paradigm for the bilateral relations for the next 15 years, informed sources told PTI in Beijing.
At the “informal summit” with a few officials and aides at a picturesque location, the two leaders plan to spend several hours exchanging their vision and perspectives about global and domestic scenarios and explore ideas to address the contentious bilateral issues like the border dispute, they said.
The talks will focus on adhering to the principle that both countries should be sensitive to each other’s concerns and aspirations, the sources said. At the summit, Modi and Xi will try to work out a general framework for relations to move ahead without much of great expectations about the outcome, they said.
It is a leadership-driven summit, providing a leadership driven-direction and a way forward to a more stable bilateral ties, the sources said.
While no major agreements were expected to be reached at the summit, the two leaders will have candid talks on the contentious issues like Xi’s pet project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) whose flagship project, the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a major stumbling block for bilateral ties.
India protested about CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistanadministered Kashmir (PoK) disregarding India’s sovereignty concerns.
Last year turned out to be an extremely complex and difficult year for Sino-Indian ties with a host of festering differences like China blocking India’s entry into the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) as well as attempts to list Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Masood Azhar as a terrorist by the UN. The 73-day standoff at Dokalam also hit bilateral ties.
The Wuhan summit is aimed at giving an “honest try” by the
two leaders to work out an understanding at the top on the future course of relations to navigate through the maze of differences and build strategic trust and communication between themselves, they said.
It will be the fourth visit by Modi to China since he took over power in 2014 and a second bilateral visit. He made his first bilateral visit in 2015, followed by a visit to Hangzhou to take part in the G-20 summit in 2016 and Brics summit in Xiamen last year. He is again due to visit Chinese city of Qingdao in June this year to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
The two leaders decided to meet ahead of SCO meet as the summit of the eight-member group will offer little time and space for a lengthy interaction, the sources said.
Positive relations
The Modi-Xi meeting has been worked out by both sides following an understanding between the two governments that positive relations without much of tensions are most important for the development of both the countries.
While China sees India as a country of faster economic growth and safe destination for Chinese investments, and regard good ties with it is important for its peaceful rise, the thinking in India, too, is that peaceful relations with China is important for the progress of initiatives like the ‘Make in India’, they said.
At their summit, the two leaders are expected to have a “heartto-heart” chat and look at the big picture of the bilateral ties, they said.
The summit is taking place as Xi, now regarded as the most powerful leader of China, is poised for a longer tenure in the office after the last month’s removal of the two-term limit for President.