India’s Modi to visit China this week as rapprochement gathers steam
The two countries have had major disagreements over border, Dalai Lama
BEIJING (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China later 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 neighbors.
The Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councilor 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,” he told reporters after meeting Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in Beijing. “The two countries have no choice other than pursuing everlasting friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and common development.”
“The summit will go a long way towards deepening the mutual trust between the two great neighbors,” Wang 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 various issues, including the disputed border with Tibet.
The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military standoff in a remote, high-altitude stretch of that boundary last year. At one point, soldiers from the two sides threw stones and punches.
The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers in the Himalayas underscored Indian alarm at China’s expanding security and economic links in South Asia.
China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative of transport and energy links bypasses India, apart from a corner of the disputed Kashmir region, also claimed by Pakistan, but involves India’s neighbors Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Maldives.
Modi’s previously unannounced Wuhan trip is even more unusual in that he will visit China again in June for a summit in Qingdao of the China and Russia-led security grouping, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which India joined last year.
It is almost unheard of for foreign leaders to visit China twice in such close succession. Xi is also extending Modi the rare honor of a meeting outside of Beijing, which almost never happens unless there is a multilateral summit taking place.
Modi’s nationalist government has reversed course on its relationship with Beijing apparently after realizing its hard line on China was not working.
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who lives in India and who China considers a dangerous separatist, is also now facing the cold shoulder from India as well. In March, India issued an unprecedented ban on Tibetans holding a rally with the Dalai Lama in New Delhi to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the failed uprising against Chinese rule.
However, other areas of disagreement remain between Beijing and New Delhi.
For example, China has blocked India’s membership of a nuclear cartel and it has also been blocking UN sanctions against a Pakistan-based terrorist leader blamed for attacks on India.