MEA confirms Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India

Putting to rest all speculations in connection with the visit of Xi Jinping to India, the Ministry of external affairs on Wednesday (October 9) confirmed that Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India from October 11 and 12 to take part in the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the meet they are expected to hold comprehensive talks on a host of issues concerning the bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues.

Xi will attend the second informal meeting with Modi at Mamallapuram near Chennai from October 11 to 12 and pay a state visit to Nepal on October 13, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday.

According to sources, the focus of the informal summit between the two leaders will be to find broad pathways to deepen ties besides discussing trade, political relations and ways to deal with terror.

While maintenance of peace and tranquility along the border will be discussed, India will also look forward to additional Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) along the border, added sources.

When asked about Kashmir, sources said that India’s position on Kashmir is very clear and that if Xi raises the issue, PM Modi will explain India’s view point on it.

This is the second informal summit between Modi and Xi. The first one was held last year at the Chinese city of Wuhan, which enabled the two countries to normalise the relations on all fronts after the 73-day standoff between the two militaries at Doklam in 2017.

The standoff took place over the Chinese military’s plan to build a road close to the narrow Siliguri corridor also known as Chicken Neck corridor connecting the North-Eastern states. The standoff ended with both sides withdrawing from the standoff site after the Chinese military called off its road-building plans.

Wednesday’s announcement about Xi’s visit to India by China, coincides with the ongoing visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and its Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. Khan who arrived on Tuesday held talks with Premier Li Keqiang and expected to meet Xi on Wednesday.

Khan’s visit is taking place at a time when tensions have spiked between Pakistan and India after New Delhi ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5. Ahead of Xi’s visit, China on Tuesday however, said the Kashmir issue should be resolved between New Delhi and Islamabad, significantly omitting its recent references to the UN and UN Security Council resolutions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang’s comments marked a significant shift on what China has been saying on Kashmir in recent weeks in the aftermath of India’s move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution removing the special status to Kashmir.