NEW DELHI – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President XiJinping will hold an informal summit in southern India on Friday, officialssaid, amid strains in their relationship.
The meeting follows months of niggling between the world’s two mostpopulous nations over trade, border disputes, and their respectivediplomatic moves.
India’s foreign ministry has not formally announced the meeting in theTamil Nadu town of Mamallapuram, known for its historic temples andarchitecture.Ad
But it has opened media registration for a “second India-China informalsummit”, and Chinese officials have been scouting out the seaside town forseveral weeks.
Indian media reports said Xi and Modi will visit Mamallapuram’s attractionson the follow up to their first informal summit in Wuhan, China, in Aprillast year.
That meeting followed an intense high-altitude stand-off at a disputedborder post in the Himalayas.
Xi is expected to leave Saturday, as Nepalese media have said he will visitKathmandu this weekend on his way back from the India talks.
The historic rivalry between India and China has been strained in recentmonths after Beijing criticised New Delhi’s decision to revoke autonomy inKashmir, the Himalayan region also claimed by Pakistan.
Beijing singled out India’s decision to create a separate administrativeterritory in Ladakh, a Buddhist-dominated part of Kashmir, as part of thechange.
China also claims parts of the Ladakh region, perched on a steep Himalayanborder with China’s restive Xinjiang to its north and Tibet to the east.
“India has continued to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty byunilaterally changing its domestic law,” China’s foreign ministry said inAugust.
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India too claims part of Ladakh region under Chinese control.
India has also objected to Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, a globalinfrastructure programme that includes a major project throughPakistan-administered Kashmir, a territory claimed by New Delhi.
The two went to war in 1962 over Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastIndia, where China claims about 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 squaremiles) of the territory, next to Tibet.
Trade is another sore point in the relationship.
India recently raised the issue of its rising trade deficit of about $55billion, according to some reports, and pressed China for better marketaccess for Indian companies.
Xi, in turn, can be expected to press Modi to open Indian markets toHuawei’s 5G telecom systems amidst global debate on security concerns.
The United States is blocking Huawei and encouraging its allies to do thesame because of the company’s links to the Beijing government.
China’s President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi havemet several times, including at the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg,South Africa, in July 2018. -APP/AFP
