Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit India for 'informal summit' with PM Modi later this year
This was decided at a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India later this year to hold "informal" talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the lines of the meeting that took place in Wuhan in China last year, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
This was decided at a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Bishkek city of Kyrgyzstan.
"The Prime Minister specifically conveyed to President Jinping and he agreed that both sides need to raise our expectations from the relationship. The Prime Minister welcomed him to India for the next informal summit and President Xi Jinping confirmed his readiness to visit India this year," Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said at a press briefing after the bilateral talks between the two leaders.
However, he said the date and venue of the summit is yet to be decided while media reports in India had earlier said it would be in Modi's home state Gujarat.
In April last year, Modi and Xi had met in Wuhan for an informal summit in order to deepen bilateral cooperation. That meeting came following the 73-day standoff in Bhutan's Doklam plateau in 2017, which strained bilateral ties between the two countries.
Last month, India and China said they are in touch for the second informal summit between Modi and Xi scheduled to be held in India later this year.
Speaking at Wuhan, Modi had expressed hope that "such informal summit" would "become a tradition between the two countries."
"I'll be happy if, in 2019, we can have such an informal summit in India," he had said.
In a tweet after the Thursday meeting with Jinping, Modi said, "Had an extremely fruitful meeting with President Xi Jinping. Our talks included the full spectrum of India-China relations. We shall continue working together to improve economic and cultural ties between our nations."
During the meeting, Modi and Xi had discussed strengthening bilateral relations in key areas.
"Your birthday falls on June 15. On behalf of the people of India, I give my best wishes to you. After election results, I received your message and you congratulated me again. I am obliged. Together, we can move forward and work with each other in various areas in the coming days," Modi said in his opening remarks.
Modi is on a two-day visit to Kyrgyzstan for attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit. This is his first visit to a multilateral forum after re-election.
(With ANI inputs)