Modi in China HIGHLIGHTS: PM says Indians proud that Chinese President went out of his way to receive him twice

It was in 2014 that the two leaders began their informal meetings when Xi was hosted by Modi at the Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in Gujarat. Since then, they have met and interacted with each other in about a dozen international meetings, a PTI report said. But this will be their "heart-to-heart" informal summit. There will be no agreement signed or a joint statement issued, the news agency added.

The two leaders will resume their one-on-one interaction tomorrow at 10 a.m (local time) with walks by the lakeside, boat ride and wind up their talks over lunch, official sources were quoted as saying by PTI.

Wuhan was also the favorite holiday spot of revolutionary Chinese leader Mao Zedong. The 'heart-to-heart' summit here is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Dokalam standoff last year, reports PTI.

Prime Minister Modi told the Chinese President Xi Jinping that when he was Gujarat Chief Minister, he had the opportunity to visit Wuhan province. He praised the speed with which the Three Gorges Dam was constructed. He also spent a day at the dam, while on a study tour, says ANI.

The culture of both India and China is based along the river banks, if we talk about Mohenjo Daro and Harappa civilizations in India, all the development happened along river banks: PM Modi to President Xi Jinping in Wuhan

When I was the CM of Gujarat, I had the opportunity to visit Wuhan. I had heard a lot about the Three Gorges Dam. The speed with which you constructed it and the scale inspired me. So I came on a study tour, spent a day at the dam: PM Modi to President Xi Jinping

PM Modi meetChinesees President Xi Jinping at Wuhan, in central China. Modi was awarded a grand red carpet welcome in Wuhan.

It was the winter of 1988, when Vijay Gokhale, in his twenties and a fluent Mandarin speaker by then, was the First Secretary (Political) at the Indian Embassy in Beijing and then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi visited China. This was the first visit by an Indian PM in 34 years, after Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954 when Zhao En-lai had announced the Panchsheel, the five principles of peaceful coexistence, which would be derailed by the 1962 war. READ HERE

Wuhan, located at the confluence of the Han and Yangtze rivers, has a population of 8.8 million and is one of the most populous cities of Central China. The city, which lies at a distance of 1162 km from Beijing, was reportedly chosen as a venue for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping’s meeting as China is said to be keen on showcasing its central region to the Indian PM. The PM, during three of his previous visits, has visited the northern, eastern, southern and western regions of China. READ HERE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit Chairman Mao's villa. A boat ride on the East Lake is also on the cards.

This exciting journey of the international relations from biploarism to dreams of unipolarism and “end of history” to multi-polarism to multi-stakeholderism is what brings Modi and Xi together today. Not every meeting between the leaders of two countries need to be viewed through the prism of bilateralism alone. India and China are two big poles in the world today. Both have no doubt bilateral schisms to attend to, but both are playing much larger roles in the world today. Bilateral issues and domestic priorities are important. They will come up when the leaders meet. But it will be a mistake to assume that Wuhan is all about bilateral issues.

From the Chinese perspective, the Tibetan issue and how India handles the refugees are key questions. The BRI and India's role in it, is also being looked at. Sources said the talks will not be on “specific issues” but “future direction of the relationship”, including concerns & sensitivities such as the China-Pakistan-Economic Corridor, Belt and Road Initiative, the listing of Masood Azhar and India’s membership in NSG

In an opinion published in China's CGTN, Long Xingchun, a research fellow at the Charhar Institute and director of the Center for Indian Studies at China West Normal University said,  "The unprecedented dialogue in an informal, cordial way shows that New Delhi is eager to repair the frayed bonds with China by effectively controlling projected differences. Both sides need to build mutual trust to make sure that any conflict like the Dong Lang (Doklam) one will never happen again." 

Does the PM accept the failure of his Cabinet Min’s (Defense & EAM) to confront China on creation of ‘full-fledged Chinese Military Complex’ in #Doklam right upto 10m from Indian Army post, during their visit on 20th-24th April, as an abdication of their duty to the Nation?

India is facing increasingly aggressive China to intrude into the ‘Chicken Neck’ -Siliguri Corridor by building a new road through South of #Doklam (Gateway to the North East), but why is Modi Govt clueless and incapable to send a strong message to China?

Doesn’t the latest ‘Satellite Imagery’ from Google Maps of 25th April, 2018 show creation of additional structures by China meters away from Indian Army posts? Has PM & Defense Ministry taken note of it?

Will PM Modi take up the issue in the ‘Summit’ with Chinese President today in Wuhan, China?

Modiji may not be able to show ‘red eyes’ as he loftily promised, but will he show the courage of conviction to do plain-speaking on #Doklam & defend India’s interests?

There was wisdom in staying the course Modi set in 2014 with respect to China because it at least afforded opportunities for India to initiate fresh thinking and approaches to long-standing problems and it certainly forced the Chinese to sit up and take note. READ HERE

Here is the schedule for PM's first day in China as he sits down with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan province on April 28. These are local timings, China is 2 hour 30 minutes ahead of IST. 

1000-1030hrs - East Lake Walk with President Xi (East Lake Guesthouse Complex)

1030-1130hrs - Boat Ride with President Xi (East Lake)

1140 - 1240 - Lunch hosted by President Xi for PM.

Here is the schedule for PM's first day in China as he sits down with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan province. These are local timings, China is 2 hour 30 minutes ahead of IST. 

1530hrs - 1630hrs: One on one meeting with President Xi followed by a tour of Exhibition of Marquis Yi of Zeng Cultural Relics and Treasure (Hubei Provincial Museum)

1800 hrs - Meeting with President Xi (delegation may be present)

1840 hrs - Dinner hosted by President Xi for PM Modi

The tete-a-tete between the two leaders is going to set a stage for Beijing and New Delhi to further exchange views over long-term and strategic issues and to initiate fresh momentum for future bilateral cooperation wrote Chinese news agency Xinhua in a commentary. 

Ahead of the meeting between the two premiers, China's Global Times in an op-ed wrote, 'China also has many doubts about India. While the Indian government promised not to support Tibetan separatism, it has harbored separatists over a long period of time and tacitly approved them engaging in activities that jeopardize China's interests in India. In recent years, India has drawn close to the US and Japan, cooperating with the US over Washington's rebalance to Asia-Pacific strategy and is even possibly setting up an Asian version of NATO together with the US and Japan to contain China. India is not only firmly opposed to the Belt and Road initiative, but also warned South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka to reject it.'
 

The visit has naturally elicited enormous interest, not only in India but globally. Coming just two months before Modi’s long-scheduled visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Summit in June, and projected as an informal, agenda-free deliberation, the meeting of Modi and Xi is being interpreted by experts in several ways. READ HERE

Modi will meet Xi at about 3 pm Friday at the Hubei provincial museum. The two leaders will head for a one-on-one meeting at the premises and also tour the museum together.

Later, a structured meeting between Modi and Xi, with six officials on each side, will be held at the museum premises. The two sides will then move to the State Guest House, a palatial complex in the heart of the city along the East lake, where the leaders will meet once again accompanied by the officials. Modi and Xi will again meet for dinner at the guest house Friday evening.

This structured delegation-level talks is the first indication that the “informal summit” is being crafted in a calibrated and choreographed manner.

The two leaders have met at least 10 times over the last four years, but this will be their first meeting since Xi has been re-elected, with the Constitutional limit for a presidential term done away with.

“There has been a lack of strategic trust between the two countries, and this summit will be looking at repairing that damage and how to move forward,” sources said.

“Wuhan was recently named China’s happiest city…we hope to give some happy news about the summit,” a Chinese official told The Indian Express.

The visit has naturally elicited enormous interest, not only in India but globally. Coming just two months before Modi’s long-scheduled visit to China for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State Summit in June, and projected as an informal, agenda-free deliberation, the meeting of Modi and Xi is being interpreted by experts in several ways.

Some are optimistic while others are calling for caution. Some assume that the visit will resolve many longstanding and outstanding issues between the two countries, seen until now as intense adversaries, if not enemies, others are worried about the fallout of the meet on relations with other countries — especially, India’s with the US and China’s with Pakistan. Read more

BJP's National General Secretary Ram Madhav wrote in his opinion piece published by The Indian Express.

Modi and Xi will try to work out a general framework for relations to move ahead without much of great expectations about the outcome, Indian officials said.

Conceived on the lines of the 1988 ice-breaking visit to China undertaken by the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and his far-reaching talks with China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping setting a new tone for the relations post-1962 war, Xi-Modi dialogue at Wuhan was aimed at a working a new paradigm for the bilateral relations for the next 15 years, they said.

The talks will focus on adhering to the principle that both countries should be sensitive to each other's concerns and aspirations, the sources said. It is a leadership driven summit providing a leadership driven direction and a way forward to more stable bilateral ties, they added.

This will be fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is again due to visit China to take part in the SCO summit to be held at Qingdao city on June 9-10. (PTI)

In a pre-departure statement, Prime Minister Modi said he and President Xi will review the developments in Sino-Indian relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.'President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of current and future international situation,' Modi said. Modi will have meetings with Xi tomorrow and the day after, which officials say could become a game-changer if they manage to reach consensus on finding the solution to the problems, including the way forward to resolve the boundary dispute and other vexed issues that bedevilled the ties. (PTI)

PM Modi in China. (Source: PMO/Twitter)

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be hosting PM Narendra Modi for an informal summit where officials say the two leaders would spend most of the time interacting with each other with one-on-one conversations focussing on global, regional and bilateral issues.

The summit is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Doklam standoff last year. The famous East Lake in the central Chinese city of Wuhan where the two leaders would spend most of the time was a favourite holiday spot for Mao. (PTI)

Earlier this week, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou told the media that Modi will stay in a most comfortable place in Wuhan, without revealing the location citing security reasons. "The two leaders will spend two days in Wuhan. In these two days, they will engage with each other on various forums. What I can tell you is that they will spend a lot of time together one-on-one," he said.

The groundwork for rapprochement with China had begun two months ago, when foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale sent out a note asking senior leaders and government functionaries of the Centre and states to stay away from events planned to mark 60 years in exile of the Dalai Lama.

Xi and Modi are expected to exchange views on issues of strategic, long-term and overall importance at their informal meeting in Wuhan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Wuhan, China on Thursday night. The PM was received by Kong Xuanyou, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of foreign affairs of China, Luo Zhaohui (Ambassador), Tong Daochi (Vice-Governor of Hubei) and many others.