Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was yesterday to get a tour of a museum and dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the first day of an ice-breaking visit to China in which the giant neighbors will seek to reset a troubled relationship.
Modi is only spending about 24 hours in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, just months after a dispute over a stretch of their high-altitude Himalayan border rekindled fears of war between the two Asian nations.
Modi was to first greet Xi and then get a tour of ancient Chinese artifacts at the Hubei Provincial Museum, followed by what was scheduled to be a 40-minute meeting with Xi and then dinner, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said.
The two are today due to take a walk around their guesthouse and then an hour-long boat trip, informal settings mostly without aides that both sides are hoping will lead to frank discussions.
“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 on Twitter.
Indian and Chinese officials have offered few other details of the summit.
The Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily yesterday said in a commentary that the cultures of China and India set great store on the concept of harmony and pointed out that the same museum had in 2014 held a special exhibition on India.
“The friendly exchanges between China and India have again and again seen composed moving stories, creating a model for intercultural dialogue in the world,” the newspaper said.
As well as disputes over stretches of their 3,500km border, the Asian giants are bumping up against each other in the Indian Ocean and squabbling over Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative.
India signaled as recently as Tuesday its opposition to the grand trade and transport plan, because one of its branches runs through Pakistani-administered Kashmir, which India claims.
China has been concerned about US efforts to draw India into a maritime “quad” of democracies, including Japan and Australia.
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