Looking forward to meet Prez Xi: Modi
NEW DELHI, Aug 19:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday underlined the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity along the frontier with China and reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution to the boundary question as he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
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Modi said stable, predictable and constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and that he was looking forward to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese city of Tianjin.
Wang, who landed in Delhi on Monday on a two-day visit, handed over a message and an invitation to the SCO summit from President Xi to Prime Minister Modi.
The signal of a renewed momentum in India-China relations came amid strain in ties between New Delhi and Washington over President Donald Trump’s policy on tariffs.
In a social media post following his meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Modi said India-China relations have made steady progress, guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities, since his talks with President Xi around 10 months back.
Two days after India and China agreed to end the eastern Ladakh face-off, Modi and Xi met in the Russian city of Kazan in October last and agreed to revive several mechanisms to normalise bilateral relations and address the border dispute.
Wang’s visit is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.
“Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities,” Modi said on ‘X’.
“I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said Modi emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border, and reiterated India’s commitment to a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” resolution of the boundary question.
“The Prime Minister welcomed the steady and positive progress in bilateral ties since his meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, guided by mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity, including the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra,” it said in a statement.
Modi thanked Xi for the invitation to the SCO summit and conveyed his acceptance.
The prime minister expressed support for China’s Presidency of the SCO Summit and said that he looked forward to meeting President Xi in Tianjin, the PMO said.
Meanwhile, in meanwhile, in a major thaw in their frosty ties, India and China on Tuesday unveiled a series of measures for a “stable, cooperative and forward-looking” relationship that included jointly maintaining peace along the frontier, reopening border trade, promoting investment flows, and resuming direct flight connectivity at the earliest.
The announcements aimed at realising the “full” development potential of the two Asian giants came amid growing estrangement in ties between India and the US over President Donald Trump’s policies on trade and tariff.
India and China listed the measures in a joint document after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval over the last two days.
The two sides agreed that they should earnestly implement the important common understandings reached between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping and promote sustained, sound and steady development of India-China relations.
Wang landed in Delhi on Monday on a two-day visit and his trip is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.
The Doval-Wang talks under the framework of the Special Representatives dialogue on Tuesday produced five concrete outcomes that included setting up an expert group under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) to explore an “early harvest in boundary delimitation”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in the document.
In the meeting, Doval and Wang agreed on the need to take a political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship while seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for settlement of the boundary question in accordance with the agreement on political parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the boundary question signed in 2005. (PTI)
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