Narendra Modi, Xi Jinping to meet next week on sidelines of SCO summit, says Indian ambassador

Beijing: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping next week on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit at Bishkek, the first meeting between the two leaders after the formation of the new government, Indian envoy Vikram Misri announced on Thursday. “In recent years, India and China have been able to build a very mature and stable relationship. The informal summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi in Wuhan last year was a milestone and has been instrumental in taking our relations to a new height,” Misri said. [caption id=“attachment_4449119” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File images of Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping. PTI[/caption] The Indian ambassador was speaking after inaugurating India’s Synthite Industries’ 3rd manufacturing facility at Wucheng county in Dezhou in China’s Shandong province. “It is worth mentioning that last year, our leaders met four times on the sidelines of different multi-lateral meetings. Next week, they are again meeting in Bishkek on the sidelines of the SCO Summit," he said. The SCO summit is due to be held on 13-14 June in the Kyrgyzstan capital. The SCO is a China-led eight-member security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017. This will be their first meeting after Modi’s re-election following the stunning victory of the BJP in the general elections. Xi extended his “heartfelt congratulations” to Prime Minister Modi for winning the general elections, in a rare gesture of greeting a foreign leader well before the official announcement of the results. Misri said the economic and commercial engagement between India and China constitutes a major component of the bilateral relations with bilateral trade which crossed USD 95 billion last year and is set to cross USD 100 billion this year. In December last year, Prime Minister Modi met President Xi on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Argentina and discussed joint efforts to further enhance mutual trust and friendship between the two giant neighbours. The 27-28 April Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi was largely credited to have turned around the bilateral relations soured by the 73-day Doka La standoff, triggered by Chinese troops’ attempts to build a road close to Indian border in an area also claimed by Bhutan in 2017. After the Wuhan summit, both the countries stepped up efforts to improve relations on different spheres including the military-to-military ties.