 "PM Modi and China's Xi Jinping are expected to meet at the SCO summit later this month. File image/AP")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China later this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Tuesday during his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
This will be the prime minister’s first visit to China since 2018. The SCO Summit will open on August 31 in Tianjin. “Our prime minister will be visiting for the SCO summit,” Doval said, speaking of “new energy” in diplomatic ties.
On PM Modi’s upcoming visit to China, Yi said, “The Chinese side attaches great importance to the Prime Minister’s visit to China to attend the SCO summit at our invitation. We believe that the Indian side will also make contribution to a successful summit in Tianjin. History and reality prove once again that a healthy and stable China-India relationship serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both of our countries. It is also what the developing countries all want to see.”
Yi is on a three-day visit to India and has met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Relations between the two Asian giants have been thawing since an agreement last October on patrolling their Himalayan border, easing a five-year standoff that had hurt trade, investment and air travel.
Yi and Doval held an extensive meeting on settling specific issues along the border to advance the Indo-China relationship further. “I am ready to work with you to build more consensus and identify the direction, the specific goals of the next round of boundary consultations going forward and create more conditions for the improvement and further growth of our bilateral relations,” he said.
With inputs from agencies