Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Chennai this week for the second India-China Informal Summit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has confirmed.
The Chinese Premier, who is visiting the country at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be in Chennai on October 11-12, according to an official release.
"The forthcoming Chennai Informal Summit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to continue their discussions on overarching issues of bilateral, regional and global importance and to exchange views on deepening India-China Closer Development Partnership," the release added.
PTI reports
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.
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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.
The Wuhan summit
The first summit between India and China 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.
Read: The Modi-Xi bonhomie at Wuhan
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.