Will Xi-Modi summit lead to deals on Belt and Road, investments, and border?
Unexpected meeting between the two leaders comes as a major course correction for a fraught relationship as Asian giants re-evaluate their options with regards to one another as well as Trump’s America
“Both sides have agreed not to sign an agreement or release any joint document but reach important consensus to resolve outstanding issues,” Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said on Tuesday in Beijing.
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“There are no concrete deliverables. The two leaders will explore their areas of convergence amid the current global climate and seek a template for future partnership,” said Ashok Kantha, a former Indian ambassador to China who leads the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi. “It’s a special gesture on part of Prime Minister Modi, visiting China twice in six weeks.”
It is this flurry of activity and the unusual haste, and Modi’s known preference for big-bang policy moves, that have raised expectations of the meeting. Xi and Modi were long scheduled to meet in Qingdao, eastern China, in June for the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. This bilateral summit, to take place in Wuhan on Friday and Saturday, was suddenly announced last Sunday.
Both sides have managed to keep a tight lid on the ongoing pre-summit negotiations and the give-and-take that has already taken place to make themeeting possible.
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