Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday agreed to maintain the “momentum” in bilateral relations, PTI reported. Modi and Xi met on the sidelines of the the three-day Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa bloc summit in Johannesburg.

In Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang said that Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe “plans to pay a friendly official visit to India” at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman. Modi and Xi had agreed on the visits when they met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Qingdao, China in June.

Advertisement

This was Modi’s third meeting with Xi in three months. “It is important to maintain this momentum and for this we should, at our level, regularly review our relationship and give proper instructions whenever required,” Modi told Xi.

The Chinese President said Beijing is willing to consolidate and develop a closer development partnership with India, Xinhua reported. “We have provided a top-level design for bilateral ties, which is conducive to mobilizing the positive elements of all sectors in both countries and uniting the wills of the 2.6 billion people of the two countries, so as to form a force that would push bilateral ties into the future,” Xi said.

India’s Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told reporters in New Delhi that Modi and Xi had reiterated their willingness to improve communication and peace in the border regions. Modi said National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will visit China for the Special Representative-level boundary discussion later this year, Gokhale added.

Modi and Xi will meet at the G20 summit in Argentina later this year. They are also scheduled to have another informal meet in India, during which they will continue their discussions on several matters including improving trade ties, Gokhale said. “It has been decided that an Indian trade delegation will be travelling to China on August 1 and 2. Among the issues they will discuss are exports of soya, sugar and non-basmati rice and they will also look at the possible import of urea from China,” Gokhale said.