PM Modi To Meet Xi Jinping Shortly During First China Visit In 7 Years

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet in Tianjin today, their first in about ten months, for wide-ranging talks aimed at improving relations.

The meeting assumes significance in view of a sudden downturn in India-US ties triggered by Washington's policies on trade and tariffs.

PM Modi and Xi will meet on the sidelines of the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit beginning today. Considering the scope of issues for discussion, official sources indicated that they could meet again later in the day. The two leaders last met in October in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

Before leaving for India on Monday, PM Modi is also expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The SCO summit will begin with an official banquet hosted by Xi on Sunday.

Twenty foreign leaders are attending the SCO Plus summit being organised by China, which is this year's rotating chair of the 10-member bloc comprising Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and China.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is also taking part in the summit. Leaders who arrived here included Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his Nepalese counterpart KP Sharma Oli and Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu. The leaders' summit will be held on Monday.

This summit, the largest so far by the SCO, will be one of the most important head-of-state and home-ground diplomacy events in China this year, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Bin had said earlier.

In his keynote speech at the summit, Xi will elaborate on China's new vision and propositions for the SCO in carrying forward the "Shanghai Spirit", shouldering the mission of the times and responding to people's expectations, he said.

Most of the leaders are expected to stay beyond the two-day summit to witness China's largest military parade to be held in Beijing on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

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