Modi-Xi meet: China's envoy highlights importance of India-China ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a host of issues, as he will arrive in Chennai for the second informal summit between the two nations, from October 11 to 12. The first informal summit was held at the Chinese city of Wuhan, last year, where the two leaders met each other after the Doklam standoff. Meeting of heads of the two countries has always been significant, not only for Asia but for global politics and the current meeting is important after what China has said ahead of the summit.

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While both the countries are looking forward to this informal meeting, China has responded with hope and positivity. They have highlighted the importance of this meeting by calling it an opportunity of “friendship” and “strategic guidance” for both the nations which have been old trading partners. In a tweet, the Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong said: “Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India from October 11th to 12th for the 2nd Informal Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Chennai. Hope their Strategic guidance and friendship will usher China-India ties into a new chapter.”

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Both Prime Minister Modi and President Xi have displayed brilliant diplomatic prowess in the past by deescalating contentions and showing commitment to work together. The 73-day-standoff between India and China at Doklam last year, did not hamper the ties between the countries as the leaders positively met and sorted it out. The Chinese Ambassador also reiterated this spirit of India-China bilateral relations and its potentials. “P2P&cultural ties are key to bilateral relations. We achieved a lot in this field, with 1 million mutual visits per year and 2 rounds of High-Level P2P&Cultural Exchanges Mechanism meeting. Let's work for new highlights in culture, education, youth, media, and sports exchanges.” tweeted the Ambassador.

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After the United States placed visa restrictions on Chinese officials accusing them of abusing minorities in the Xinjiang region, this engagement between the Asian giants becomes crucial. In addition, the US has also blacklisted 28 companies alleging their involvement in the surveillance of the minorities. Earlier in a tit for tat, China imposed tariffs on US goods worth $110bn against US imposition on Chinese goods worth $360bn. Tension between US-China is at its all-time high and the Chinese envoy highlighted why India-China relationship becomes more important in view of “growing uncertainty”. He said: “With growing uncertainty in the international situation, China and India should strengthen cooperation on international and regional affairs, just as we once jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which have become basic norms of international relations.” During the Modi-Xi meet, no documents/agreements would be signed as this is an informal summit which is largely unstructured in nature. However, the two leaders are most likely to discuss global politics and trade apart from security and terrorism.

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