Beijing | China’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it was not aware of any plans of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India in the next two months for the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as reported by a Japanese publication.
Japanese publication Nikkei Asian Review on Tuesday carried a report titled “Xi plans India visit, as diplomatic chess with US intensifies”.
The story said, “Xi intends to visit India as early as February in a move seen at countering Washington’s increasingly antagonistic trade policy and aggressive Indo-Pacific diplomacy.”
When asked about the report, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, “You said this was reported by Japanese media. So it is quite interesting. I am not aware of what you said.”
Hua said China and India are friendly neighbours.
“We attach importance to maintain high-level exchanges. And the leader of both the countries also maintain friendly communication and exchange,” she said.
When pointed out that the Russian media also carried a similar report, Hua said, “Chinese media hasn’t reported it and I am not aware of the information you mentioned”.
“But we attach importance to our relations with India and we stand to maintain close communication at various levels,” she said.
Officials sources here on Wednesday told PTI here that there was no proposal for Xi to visit India for the second informal summit Prime Minister Modi.
Wuhan summit was the first such high-level meeting ever between Indian and Chinese leaders. It was conceived by both the sides following the 2017 military standoff at Doklam which ratcheted up tensions between the two countries.
The two-day summit at Wuhan during which the two leaders closely interacted for hours on bilateral and international issues has paved the way for the two countries to normalise relations on all fronts putting behind the Doklam standoff.
Since then the two countries steadily normalised relations with intensified dialogue on various fronts, including the military and trade fronts.
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