PM Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping to meet on Aug 31 on sidelines of SCO Summit

New Delhi/Beijing, Aug 28 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, on Sunday.

PM Modi will be in China on the invitation of President Xi to attend the SCO Summit after concluding his two-day visit to Japan.

This will be PM Modi's first visit to China in last seven years and the first since the Galwan Valley faceoff in June 2020 between the soldiers of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Both leaders had held a meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia's Kazan in 2024. The breakthrough in bilateral talks was made possible after India and China reached an agreement on patrolling along the nearly 3500-km LAC to end the four-year-long border confrontation.

On August 21, China's Ambassador to India Xu Feihong asserted that PM Modi's visit to Tianjin for SCO Summit will give a fresh impetus to the improvement and development of relations between both countries.

"The visit of Prime Minister Modi to China will be a very important event not only for the SCO but for the bilateral relationship between the two countries. A working group from China and India is working very hard to make this visit a successful one. From our side, we attach great importance to this visit. It will be a very successful one," Xu Feihong told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi.

On August 19, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had called on Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi, handing over a message and invitation from President Xi Jinping to the PM for the two-day SCO Summit beginning August 31.

"Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other's interests and sensitivities. I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity," PM Modi posted on X after the meeting.

During the meeting, PM Modi emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border, and reiterated India's commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question.

"Prime Minister welcomed the steady and positive progress in bilateral ties since his meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, guided by mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity, including the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra," read a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)

"Prime Minister thanked President Xi for the invitation to the SCO Summit and conveyed his acceptance. He expressed support for China's Presidency of the SCO Summit and said that he looked forward to meeting President Xi in Tianjin. The PM underlined that stable, predictable, and constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional and global peace and prosperity," it added.

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established in Shanghai on June 15, 2001. The SCO member states are: China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus. The SCO has two observer states — Afghanistan and Mongolia and 14 dialogue partners, including Turkey, Kuwait, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain, the Maldives, Myanmar and the United Arab Emirates.

--IANS

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