Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday left for China, where he will take part in an informal summit with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan on April 27-28.
India and China will look to re-set their strained ties as PM Modi and President Jinping meet each other at a two-day informal summit starting on Friday.
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The Asian giants, who fought a brief war in 1962 and have a history of mutual distrust, nearly came to an armed conflict on the border in 2017, taking their ties to a new low.
However, the “one of its kind” rendezvous between Modi and Xi at the heart of China is a sign enough that the two countries were willing for a new start in their tense relationship.
The Xi-Modi meeting will be different from the past ones as the talks will not be choreographed but freewheeling with only one Mandarin-speaking Indian interpreter present.
The meeting is an offshoot of Xi-Modi parleys just after the resolution of the Doklam crisis on the sidelines of BRICS Summit at Xiamen in China.
“The idea germinated at the Xiamen summit,” said an official.
The two leaders will meet not once or twice but “several” times during the two days and will have heart-to-heart conversations, Chinese and Indian officials say.
In other news, there will be no joint statement or communique after the informal summit between both the leaders.
“It will not be an issue-based discussion,” a source said when asked if the contentious issues like India’s NSG membership bid, China blocking designation of terrorist Masood Azhar at the UN will be raised during the meeting.
There will be no joint statement or communique after the informal summit, which will see the two leaders sharing their perspectives on national as well as international developments, the source added.
(With inputs from agencies)
