Modi in China: PM, Xi to guide armies to prevent Doklam-like row; updates

Modi, Xi Summit: Ministry of External Affairs said that no major deal was signed between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan Summit

BS Web Team  |  New Delhi 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, China
Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, China. Photo: PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will provide "strategic guidance" to their armies to prevent another Doklam-like military stand-off along their long-winding disputed border. During the two-day informal summit between Modi and Xi in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that ended on Saturday, India and China also decided to work on a joint economic project in Afghanistan, a move that could upset Beijing's "all-weather ally" and New Delhi's arch-rival Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan. In several meetings, terrorism, climate change and other international issues figured on which both leaders had similar views. "Prime Minister Modi and President Xi reviewed developments in India-China relations from the strategic and long-term perspective," said India's Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale at a media briefing.

"To this end, they issued strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication in order to build trust and mutual understanding and enhance predictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs," Gokhale said. He said the two leaders further directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence building measures agreed upon between the two sides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthen existing institutional arrangements and information sharing mechanisms to prevent incidents in border regions. They also endorsed the work of the special representatives to find a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement on the boundary issue. The two countries have so far held 20 rounds of talks to resolve the boundary dispute and worked out different mechanisms to keep peace along the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control.

Top 10 developments on Wuhan Summit, Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping's attempt to end decades of distrust

1) informal Prime Minister Narendra Modi today left for India after holding the two-day informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the central Chinese city, Wuhan. Modi had arrived in China on Thursday for the unprecedented informal summit with Xi.

2) Modi, Xi plan to bring collaborate in terms of films: "Proposals forwarded by PM Modi included moving ahead to find ways to collaborate in terms of entertainment including films. Xi Jinping said he has seen a number of Indian films and it would be a good idea to expand this. More Indian films should come to China and vice-versa," said Foreign Secretary.

3) MEA briefed media on PM Modi and President Xi meet in Wuhan, ‘no agreements or announcement on Summit, bilateral relationships, strategic and long-term partnership looked at during meet’.

'India-China have the maturity to handle problems, special representatives will deal with border issues, PM Modi spoke on balancing trade', Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.

"Co-operation on trade and technology and films, focus on people-to-people contact, discussed trade, tourism and climate change. PM Modi and President Xi also recognised the common threat posed by terrorism both reiterated their strong condemnation of a resolute opposition to terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Both committed to cooperate further in counter-terrorism", he added.

4) Modi's message for followers on Chinese social media Weibo: PM Modi has 1,83,112 followers on the popular Chinese social media Weibo. On Saturday, Modi said in a Weibo post , "I am very pleased to meet with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan. We conducted extensive and fruitful talks and exchanged opinions on strengthening India-China relations and other international issues."
"Thank you, President Xi Jinping, for the wonderful gesture of personally accompanying me in the Hubei Provincial Museum. The Museum is home to great facets of Chinese history and culture," he said.

5) Modi to visit China again in June

The first informal summit in Wuhan between Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping is set to conclude on Saturday with a one-on-one lunch with the Chinese president. This marks the fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is due to visit the country again to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held at Qingdao city on 9-10 June.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi asked Modi to raise the issues of Doklam and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with Xi Jinping, saying people of the country want to hear him talk on them. "Saw live TV feed of your 'No Agenda' China visit. You look tense! A quick reminder: 1. DOKLAM 2. China Pakistan Eco Corridor passes through POK. That's Indian territory. India wants to hear you talk about these crucial issues. You have our support," Gandhi said.
7) Chinese media says India, China forging close economic ties: Economic ties between China and India have become closer in recent years, the report by state-run Xinhua news agency said. The two economies are highly complementary and have good potential for increased cooperation, it said. The report pointed out that bilateral trade reached a record high of $84.4 billion last year, up 20.3 per cent from 2016, the fastest growth for five years. It said China has become the largest trading partner of India, with imports rising by more than 40 per cent in 2017. Bilateral trade in Q1 hit $22.1 billion, up 15.4 per cent year-on-year. Chinese and Indian businesses signed 101 trade agreements in March, with a total contract value of USD 2.4 billion, it said.

8) Modi invites Xi to India in 2019: "I am grateful for your invite and the welcome extended by you. This is perhaps the first time when you have received an Indian Prime Minister twice away from Beijing," Modi said. "This is a matter of pride for India as you yourself came to Wuhan to welcome me. "You rightly pointed out that leaders of the two countries which represent 40 percent of the world's population are meeting. "This is just not an informal summit of two leaders but it has a historical context too." "When we had an informal meet in July (in Hamburg), the topic of the informal meet was discussed. "You invited me to informal talks and created a positive environment. This has your personal contribution to this meet.
9) PLA says ready to use Modi-Xi consensus to improve ties with Indian Army: Ahead of the Modi-Xi talks, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Thursday struck a positive note about Sino-Indian ties and the Wuhan summit. Addressing the media in Beijing, PLA's Senior Colonel Wu Qian said that despite problems, the two militaries can improve their relations under the guidelines set by the two leaders. "Although the relations between the two militaries still face some difficulties and obstacles, we are willing to use the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries as guidelines to deepen our understanding, increase mutual trust, make proper differences, and continuously accumulate the positive energy of the healthy and stable development of the relations between the two militaries," Wu said.
10) Modi, Xi look to end decades of distrust amid significant differences: Officials have told news agencies that the Modi-Xi Jinping summit is aimed at ending decades of distrust between the two Asian giants, which has deepened as China, with an economy five times bigger than India's, asserts itself in the region.
Further, despite the optimism about the summit in certain quarters, India and China's differences are significant. Apart from disputes over stretches of a 3,500 km (2,200 miles) border, which came to a head during last year's Doklam standoff, the Asian giants are bumping up against each other in the Indian Ocean and don't see eye to eye over China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
In fact, as recently as on Tuesday, New Delhi signalled its opposition to the BRI because one of its branches, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), runs through Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, which India claims.
On the other side, Beijing has been concerned over US efforts to draw India into a maritime "quad" of democracies, including Japan and Australia, in a part of the world they have begun calling the "Indo-Pacific" instead of the "Asia-Pacific".
Further, China's opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group and its application at the United Nations to declare Pakistan-based terrorist group chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist are some of the irritants that have hampered Sino-Indian ties in the recent past.

With Agency inputs

First Published: Sat, April 28 2018. 14:09 IST