Modi, Xi to meet in China this coming week

By Gaurav Sharma

Beijing, April 22 (IANS) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold an informal summit meeting in China's central city of Wuhan, a meet which may well be a historic one and a defining moment in the history of Sino-Indian ties.

The announcement by the Indian and Chinese Foreign Ministers Sushma Swaraj and Wang Yi respectively indicates a revival in ties between India and China, which faced a rough patch after the Doklam stand-off last year.

Modi's April 27-28 visit can be compared to the 1988 visit by then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi who met then China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and reset the bilateral ties after the 1962 war.

"As agreed between the two sides, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have an informal summit meeting from April 27 to 28 in Wuhan, Hubei province," Wang said.

"We see socialism with Chinese characteristics is entering a new era and India is at a crucial stage of the development and revitalisation. It is against this backdrop that President Xi and Prime Minister Modi have decided to hold an informal summit," Wang announced with Sushma Swaraj standing by his side.

Wang said that both sides were working on the meeting for long and would make sure that the informal summit was a complete success and a new milestone in the history of China-India relations.

Modi will also visit China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in June.

So far, no Indian Prime Minister has visited China twice within nearly a month.

"In short, we will use the important meeting as an opportunity to achieve even better and faster growth in our bilateral relations from a new starting point."

The two leaders will have communications of a "strategic nature concerning shift going (on) in the world. They will also exchange views on long-term and strategic matters, concerning the future of China-India relations".

"In our view, the global situation is undergoing a profound change and China and India are growing rapidly and simultaneously. This makes for a more balanced international geometry and a stronger trend towards peace."

Sushma Swaraj said that Modi and Xi would have communications of a strategic nature.

"They will exchange views on long-term and strategic matters, concerning the future of China-India relations.

"We agreed that as the two major countries and large emerging economies, healthy development of India-China relations is important for the emergence of the Asian century," she added.

Besides the longstanding border dispute, a range of issues plagues India-China ties.

China's opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and its application at the United Nations to declare Pakistan-based terror group chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist are some other irritants in the ties.

The key artery of Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road project -- China-Pakistan Economic Corridor -- is another sticking point in China-India ties as its route passes through the disputed Kashmir held by Islamabad and claimed by New Delhi.

(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com)