China on Friday said that it welcomes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is expected to visit the country from August 31 to September 1 for the regional SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit.
“China welcomes Prime Minister Modi to China for the SCO Tianjin Summit," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in response to a question.
"We believe that with the concerted effort of all parties, the Tianjin summit will be a gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results, and the SCO will enter a new stage of high-quality development featuring greater solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness,” Guo added.
As reported by HT, PM Modi's trip to China for the SCO Summit is expected to be clubbed with a visit to Japan for the annual bilateral summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
PM Modi last travelled to China in 2018. He visited the country for an informal summit with President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April that year and then for the SCO Summit at Qingdao in June. The visits were followed by Xi’s visit to India in 2019 for the second informal summit, which was meant to address the fallout from the Doklam standoff in 2017.
However, months later, bilateral ties between the two countries plummeted to their lowest point in six decades after skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Ladakh sector of the LAC in April-May 2020 and bloody clashes in Galwan Valley in June that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops.
The two sides reached an understanding on October 21, 2024 on ending the LAC standoff, and this was followed two days later by a meeting between Modi and Xi in the Russian city of Kazan, where they agreed to revive several mechanisms to normalise relations and address the boundary dispute.
People familiar with the matter told HT, on condition of anonymity, that Modi’s visit will set up the possibility of a bilateral meeting with Xi.
Among the issues that could be discussed at this meeting are further steps to normalise relations, including de-escalation on the LAC, the resumption of direct flights, reopening of border trade points, and people-to-people exchanges, they said.
