NEW DELHI – The two-day informal summit between Prime Minister NarendraModi and Chinese President Xi Jinping could stabilise ties between the twomilitaries, help maintain peace at the borders and settle differences, thePeople’s Liberation Army (PLA) said on Thursday, PTI has reported.

“It is the common expectation of both peoples to stabilise relationsbetween the Chinese and Indian armed forces and maintain peace andtranquillity at the border areas,” the military spokesperson, Col. Wu Qian,told the media in Beijing.

Modi and Xi are due to hold a two-day informal summit in Wuhan from Fridayduring which the boundary issue as well last year’s standoff at Dokalm wereexpected to figure in their one-on-one talks to improve relations betweenthe two countries.

“Although the relations between the two militaries still face somedifficulties and obstacles, we are willing to use the important consensusof the leaders of the two countries as guidance to deepen ourunderstanding, enhance mutual trust, properly settle differences, andcontinue to accumulate the positive energy of the healthy and stabledevelopment of the relations between the two armed forces,” Col Wu said.

He was replying to a question about the expectations from the Modi-Xisummit and as well as the outcome of the meeting between defence ministerNirmala Sitharaman and her Chinese counterpart General Wei Feng this week.

Col Wu’s comments were significant as President Xi is also the head of theruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and the military.

Regarded as the most powerful Chinese leader in recent times, Xi is theChairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) which is the overall highcommand of the Chinese armed forces.

Post-Dokalam standoff last year, the relations between two militaries werepicking up.

Sitharaman, who was in Beijing to attend the Shanghai CooperationOrganisation Defence Ministers’ meeting, held talks with her Chinesecounterpart Wei and discussed steps to improve relations between the twomilitaries.

In her remarks, she had said differences should not be allowed to becomedisputes.