Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to China to hold hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping during an informal summit on April 27 and 28 in Wuhan city, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing on Sunday. Wuhan is the capital of the central Chinese province of Hubei.
The minister said that this meeting would be a new milestone in relations between the two countries. “We see socialism with Chinese characteristics entering a new era and India acts as a crucial stage in its development and revitalisation,” ANI quoted him as saying. “It is against this backdrop that President Xi and Prime Minister Modi have decided to hold the informal summit.”
This will be the prime minister’s fourth visit to China since 2014. He is due to visit China again on June 9 and 10 to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Qingdao city, The Times of India reported.
Wang Yi made the announcement on Sunday after meeting Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who said that the two sides had discussed matters such as terrorism, climate change, sustainable development and global healthcare. She is on a four-day visit and will attend the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is a Eurasian political, economic, and security organisation established in 2001.
“My discussion with minister Wang Yi was to prepare for the informal meeting between our leaders,” Swaraj told reporters. “It will be important occasion for them to exchange view on bilateral and international matters with objective of enhancing mutual communication at level of leaders.”
The minister thanked Beijing for resuming data sharing on the Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers, and announced that the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra would resume later this year through the Nathu La pass.
The relations between the two countries have been tense since a 74-day standoff in Doklam in 2017. In March, Indian envoy Gautam Bambawale said that India had merely reacted to a change in the status quo by the Chinese military. He, however, denied reports that claimed the Chinese military was building infrastructure in the region.
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