No joint statement when Modi-Xi meet informally

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 24

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Wuhan in central China for a first informal summit meeting with President Xi Jinping on Friday, there will be no set agenda for discussions.

As the talks are informal, there would be no burden of producing a joint statement and no pre-negotiated outcome document.

Unlike in a formal summit meeting, delegations from both sides will not be seated across the table with listed items to talk about.

Rather in Wuhan, the erstwhile summer retreat of Chairman Mao Zedong located on Yangtze river, Modi and Xi will have a few one-on-one sessions on April 27 and 28.

With no note takers, the objective for the two top leaders will be to have a political dialogue to understand each other’s domestic policy intentions and how it shapes the external policy perspective.

“The objective is to have communication at the highest level. To understand perspective that each has of the other in domestic and foreign policy. So discussions are to be broad based and not specific in terms of issues,” said a source.

The Tribune has learnt that the major sticking points in bilateral relations, including Chinese objection to India’s membership bid of NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) or veto shielding of terror mastermind Masood Azhar in the Security Council, are unlikely to be raised by Modi.

India also presently maintains that post mutual disengagement between Indian and Chinese militaries at the Doklam tri-junction with Bhutan, “there has been no change at the face off site or vicinity” contrary to media reports, and the issue will not be a spoiler in the Wuhan talks.

“Discussions will be focussed on positives in relations without avoiding differences, even as we acknowledge the irritants,” added the source.

First proposed in Xiamen at the BRICS summit last September, subsequent decision was taken to hold the informal meeting separately instead of along sidelines of upcoming SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) summit in Qingdao in June where time would be limited between sessions.

One Belt One Road (OBOR), boundary disputes, and Tibetan spiritual leader in exile Dalai Lama are among other major other challenging issues in ties.

While China calls OBOR an economic connectivity project, India objects to it having CPEC (China Pak Economic Corridor), that runs through Pak occupied Kashmir, as its flagship project.

However, India feels that as a leader different from his predecessors in many ways, Xi Jinping is open to free conversations instead of reading out stiff notes, and the environment could be positive for leaders of two important Asian markets to discuss broader bilateral issues and dynamics shaping up the global agenda today.