New Delhi: The forthcoming informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in China’s Wuhan city on April 27 and 28 was planned with the objective of “strategic communication” between the two countries at top leadership levels, sources said on Tuesday.
“Specific” issues, however, will not be discussed and there will be no joint statement or communiqué at the end of the discussions. There will be “no issue-based discussions nor any resolution of individual problems” between the two countries, sources made it clear.
They added that the objective was to have a “communication at the highest level” for the “perspective” that each leader has of the other’s domestic and international policies and to understand each other’s “vision”. The vision that each leader will outline to the other will be of their respective “domestic policies and how it affects the external environment”.
It was decided by the two countries that the two leaders would meet informally ahead of a formal meeting of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the China’s Qingdao city in June where several other heads of government and state are also expected to be present.
An informal summit —where the two leaders will hold informal discussions with their interpreters being the only other persons present —was decided upon instead of a regular formal summit which would have had a very “structured” format with delegations accompanying the leaders.
The informal summit comes at a time when the two giant neighbours are trying to put their ties back on tracks after the bitterness of the Sino-Indian military stand-off last year at Doklam in Bhutanese territory.
This will be the first time that the Chinese side is holding such an informal summit in their country between the Chinese President and another world leader. It is also possible that there could be more such meetings in future, sources indicated. The informal summit will also be a signal to other countries that India and China can directly engage with each other as and when the need arises.
