Will review India-China ties from strategic perspective: PM Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping will review Sino-Indian relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective when they meet at Wuhan on April 27-28.

"President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance," Modi said in a statement here.

"We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of current and future international situation," he said.

"We will also review the developments in the India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective."

The upcoming meeting indicates a revival in ties between India and China, which faced a rough patch after a 73-day military stand-off between the two countries on the Doklam plateau in the India-Bhutan-China trijunction last year.

Modi's visit is being compared to the 1988 visit by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who met then China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and reset the bilateral ties strained since the 1962 war.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman visited Beijing earlier this week to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) ministerial meetings.

Besides the border row, a range of issues plague India-China ties.

China's opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and its application at the UN to declare Pakistan-based Masood Azhar as a global terrorist are some other irritants.

The key artery of Beijing's ambitious Belt and Road project -- China-Pakistan Economic Corridor -- is another sticking point as its route passes through the disputed Kashmir held by Islamabad and claimed by New Delhi.