Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of today’s annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The meeting in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin will be keenly watched not just in India, but also thousands of kilometres away in Washington, in view of a sudden downturn in India-US ties triggered by Washington’s policies on trade and tariffs.
In the talks, PM Modi and Xi are expected to take stock of India-China economic ties and deliberate on steps to further normalise relations that came under severe strain following the eastern Ladakh border row.
“Landed in Tianjin, China. Looking forward to deliberations at the SCO Summit and meeting various world leaders,” the prime minister wrote in a social media post, shortly after arriving in China from Japan in the second and final leg of his two-nation trip. PM Modi’s visit to China comes less than a fortnight after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited India.
Another key meeting that will be closely followed is the prime minister’s bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
‘India, China Need to Work Together to Bring Stability to World Economic Order’
Ahead of his trip to Tianjin, PM Modi said it is important for India and China to work together to bring stability to the world economic order.
In an interview with Japan’s The Yomiuri Shimbun, PM Modi said stable, predictable, and amicable bilateral relations between India and China can have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity.
“Given the current volatility in the world economy, it is also important for India and China, as two major economies, to work together to bring stability to the world economic order,” PM Modi said in the interview published on Friday.
In the last few months, both New Delhi and Beijing have initiated a series of measures to reset their ties that came under severe strain following the deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley in June 2020.
The prime minister last visited China in June, 2018 to attend the SCO summit. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India in October 2019 for the second “informal summit”.
The eastern Ladakh face-off effectively ended following completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year.
PM Modi-Putin Meeting Will be Their First This Year
In Tianjin, PM Modi will also meet Putin . The two leaders will hold bilateral talks on Monday on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday.
“Right after the SCO Plus meeting (on September 1), our president will meet Indian Prime Minister Modi,” Ushakov told journalists.
It will be their first meeting this year, although they have been regularly in touch on the phone, he said.
“Our countries are bound by a special strategic partnership,” he said. “A relevant statement in this regard was passed in December 2010, which means that this year marks the 15th anniversary since then.”
“What is especially important is that preparations will be discussed for the upcoming visit of our president to India in December,” Ushakov added.