(LiveMint)
Chinese President Xi Jinping arriving today for the second India-China informal summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid hopes that they will craft an overarching framework to develop bilateral ties by addressing a growing list of irritants. There is no set agenda for the talks in Mammalapuram, Tamil Nadu, but a loosely scripted outline will allow the two leaders to pick up subjects under broad themes such as international and bilateral issues, said a person familiar with the development said.
Given that Modi has been re-elected with a stronger majority in Parliament than in 2014 and Xi is viewed as president for life, the two leaders could work at charting out a vision for bilateral ties for the next two or three decades. Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh said there are three broad categories of issues—global and regional, economic and bilateral—that were expected to come up for discussion. However, before that, Modi and Xi “are expected to look at resetting the temperature between the two countries”. Irritants that have cropped up in the recent weeks include New Delhi’s annulment of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
