Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit: Sino-India ties pegged on lakeside walks? Top updates

Modi-Xi Jinping summit is aimed at ending decades of distrust between India and China, which has deepened as Beijing asserts itself in the region with projects like the BRI and CPEC

The informal two-day Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping summit will begin on Friday in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The meeting will be different from past such encounters as the talks will be freewheeling, instead of being choreographed. Further, only one Mandarin-speaking Indian interpreter will be present.
Ahead of the Modi-Xi talks, Chinese media was largely optimistic of its outcome and stressed the need for setting aside differences to focus on cooperation. Prime Minister Modi arrived in Wuhan a little past midnight on Friday. Before departing for China, Modi had said President Xi and he "will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance" at the summit and "review the developments in the India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective".
The Wuhan summit will see Modi and Xi reportedly discuss issues ranging from US President Donald Trump's trade policies, protectionism, globalisation, Xi's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the India-China border dispute, even as the two leaders take lakeside walks and boat rides together.
With the future of Sino-Indian ties hanging in the balance, Chinese President Xi is hosting Modi for the informal summit where officials said the two leaders would spend most of their time interacting in one-on-one conversations. According to official statements from both sides, the Modi-Xi summit aims to create a broad framework for India-China ties and build trust between the two leaders. The summit is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties, which have faced stumbling blocks and were hit by the 73-day-long Doklam standoff last year.
Even though official sources have said that the Modi-Xi summit will eschew looking into specific issues in favour of the big picture of India-China ties, a section of the Chinese media has accorded high importance to the summit. The Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit could be as significant as the one between former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the then leader of China Deng Xiaoping in 1988, the official Chinese media commented on Tuesday. "The meeting can be as significant as the one in 1988 when Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and then Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi met, and will set the course for bilateral ties," an op-ed in Global Times said.
Here are the top 10 developments around the two-day Narendra Modi-Xi Jinping Wuhan summit in China that starts today:
1)Modi-Xi need to 'manage differences, focus on cooperation': Ahead of the Modi-Xi summit, the media in China, by and large, is saying that both sides will need to manage their differences and focus on taking their existing cooperation to the next level.
Leading newspaper China Daily quoted excerpts from a recent article written by China's Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui in which he said, "Both countries are at a critical stage of economic development and modernisation", acknowledging that "it is natural for neighbours to have differences (and) that when differences can't be solved for now, we should properly manage them and focus on cooperation".
2)Modi-Xi meet 'new chapter in China-India relations':The influential hardline daily Global Times, under the headline ‘Informal Modi-Xi meeting heralds a new chapter in Sino-Indian relations’ has suggested that during the Wuhan meeting, "China should let India know that Beijing does not define New Delhi as an opponent nor seek to hinder its development”. It further states that "China encourages India and Pakistan to resolve (the) Kashmir conflict in a peaceful way".
The Global Times further suggested that "China should convince India that (the) China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (project) is based on promoting economic cooperation" and "does not influence China's neutrality".
It also cautioned India not to use Tibet as a bargaining chip.
3)India and China should 'firmly stick to free trade':State-run news agency Xinhuawrote that the "tete-e-tete between the two leaders was going to set the stage for Beijing and New Delhi to further exchange views over (the) long-term and strategic issues and to initiate fresh momentum for future bilateral cooperation". Placing emphasis on global trade issues, the mXinhua commentary said both Xi and Modi had warned on different occasions of the dire threats of trade barriers to the world economy and that "both countries should firmly stick to the spirit of free trade so as to help maintain current global free trading system with the WTO as (the Centre)".
4) Modi-Xi talks to begin after a tour of Hubei Provincial Museum: Modi arrived at picturesque Wuhan city in Central China past midnight on Friday for the two-day informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.Modi will commence his meetings with Xi at 3:30 pm on Friday at the Hubei Provincial Museum. After touring the museum for about an hour, Modi and Xi, accompanied by six top officials from each side, will hold talks at the sprawling East Lake Guest House, where Xi is staying. This will be followed by the leaders' walk. Dinner will be hosted by Chinese President Xi at the guest house in central Wuhan.
5) A boat ride without aides for Modi and Xi tomorrow: Modi and Xi will have an opportunity on Saturday to spend time without their aides, with the Chinese President taking the Indian Prime Minister for a lakeside walk and a boat ride on the picturesque East Lake. This will be followed by a private lunch hosted by the Chinese President.
ReadMore