Xi Jinping to visit India from Oct 11 to 12; No agreements, MoUs expected

Beijing, Oct 9: Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India from October 11 to 12 to take part in the 2nd informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which they are expected to hold comprehensive talks on a host of issues concerning the bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and international issues.

However, ANI quoted sources saying that there will be no agreements, Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs), joint communique expected to be signed during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India, since it is an informal meeting.

Xi will attend the second informal meeting with Modi at Mamallapuram near Chennai from October 11 to 12 and pay a state visit to Nepal on October 13, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Wednesday. This is the 2nd informal summit between Modi and Xi. The first one was held last year at the Chinese city of Wuhan, which enabled the two countries to normalise the relations on all fronts after the 73-day standoff between the two militaries at Doklam in 2017.

The standoff took place over the Chinese military's plan to build a road close to the narrow Siliguri corridor also known as Chicken Neck corridor connecting the North-Eastern states.

The standoff ended with both sides withdrawing from the standoff site after the Chinese military called off its road building plans. The Wednesday's announcement about Xi's visit to India by China, coincides with the ongoing visit of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and its Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. Khan who arrived on Tuesday held talks with Premier Li Keqiang and expected to meet Xi on Wednesday.

Khan's visit is taking place at a time when tensions have spiked between Pakistan and India after New Delhi ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5. Ahead of Xi's visit, China on Tuesday however, said the Kashmir issue should be resolved between New Delhi and Islamabad, significantly omitting its recent references to the UN and UN Security Council resolutions.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang's comments marked a significant shift on what China has been saying on Kashmir in recent weeks in the aftermath of India's move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution removing the special status to Kashmir.