Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday, seven years after his last visit to India, with the talks expected to focus on consolidating efforts to normalise bilateral ties and long-running boundary dispute.
Xi last visited India in October 2019, when he travelled to Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu for the second India-China informal summit. The meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit will give the two leaders an opportunity to assess progress towards normalising ties and discuss the next steps on the border issue, as reported by HT earlier. Xi will be in the national capital to attend the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit at Bharat Mandapam. The proposed bilateral meeting will be the third consecutive year in which Modi and Xi meet face-to-face, after their previous interactions on the sidelines of multilateral summits in Kazan, Russia, and Tianjin, China. The meeting came less than six months before Indian and Chinese troops became embroiled in a military standoff in Ladakh that lasted more than four years and pushed bilateral ties to their lowest point in decades. the country’s ambassador to India Xu Feihong has also signalled Beijing’s intent to maintain momentum in high-level engagement with New Delhi While announcing the Chinese premiere’s visit. The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on border affairs and the Special Representatives mechanism have held several rounds of discussions over the past two years. India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi have also discussed issues including boundary demarcation, recently.
His visit was confirmed by the Chinese foreign ministry on Thursday, which said he was “travelling to India at PM Modi’s invitation”. Xu said: “China will work with India to act on the strategic guidance of the two leaders, handle the bilateral relations from a strategic height and long-term perspective, step up communication, enhance cooperation, properly handle differences, and be friends enjoying good-neighborliness and partners helping each other succeed,” the envoy wrote on X.
