The focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting in Wuhan city later this week will be on ensuring stable global development and inclusive globalisation, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
Modi will travel to China to hold talks with Xi during an informal summit on April 27 and 28 in Wuhan city. The meeting comes after bilateral ties between India and China were severely affected by the military standoff at Doklam near Sikkim in August.
This will be Modi’s fourth visit to the country since 2014. He is due to visit China again on June 9 and 10 for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
“The two sides believe the strategic and global significance of our relations have become more prominent and our common interests far outweigh our differences,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said, according to the Hindustan Times.
Lu said China and India, “as newly-emerging markets as well as developing countries with big populations will continue to uphold globalisation so that it is more inclusive”, according to The Hindu.
Lu also spoke of trade protectionism, and said India and China were both interested in ensuring a more inclusive global system.
“The world is now faced with rampant unilateralism as well as rising protectionism in the process of globalisation,” he said. “We are newly emerging markets and developing countries with big populations, so we believe the two countries will continue to uphold globalisation so that it is more inclusive.”
Earlier on Monday, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is on a four-day visit to China for a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s member nations on April 24, also spoke of the improving India-China ties.
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