The meeting between PM Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to take place in an informal setting in the coastal town of Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu from Oct 11-13

Later this month both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to meet for the second India-China informal summit.

Though the dates have not been officially announced, the meeting is expected to take place in an informal setting in the coastal town of Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu from Oct 11-13. This is the first time the Southern state has been identified as a venue for such an important diplomatic meeting.

Besides holding talks on a wide range of issues in an informal format, according to sources the leaders are expected to share their views on issues related to national interests and international situations. Though there is no fixed agenda, sources have indicated that the two will also talk about further strengthening economic and people to people ties.

The meeting between the two leaders is of significance as it is taking place soon after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) where the Chinese Foreign Minister had made reference to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in his address.

Responding to a media query, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar had that said that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral part of India and had stated that the recent developments there were internal to India.

He had added, “We expect that other countries will respect India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and desist from efforts to change the status quo through the illegal so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.”

Sharing his views on Chinese comments at the UNGA related to Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Prof Rajesh Rajagopalan, School of International Studies, JNU, said that “The Chinese Foreign Minister’s statement reiterated existing elements of their Kashmir policy–problem from history (in other words, not created by Pakistan), UNSC resolutions to solve it, India changed status quo, etc. It is clear that Indian diplomatic efforts to convince them of the Indian point of view has not had much impact on their policy.”

Going forward, Indian policy towards China has to be made on the assumption that while diplomacy may be useful, at best, in preventing armed conflict, or moderating it, it will not moderate China’s efforts to balance and counter Indian interests, using Pakistan for that task, Rajagopalan adds.

According to Rajagopalan, “India, therefore should not moderate its efforts to balance and counter Chinese policies, in consultation and coordination with other like-minded states like the US, Japan and Australia. The Quad foreign ministers level meeting in the sidelines of the UNGA is a good start, but these efforts need to be speeded up.”

Said Prof Ajay Dubey, Chairperson: Special centre for National Security Studies, JNU, “By such reference in UNGA China intends to keep the pressure on India on boundary negotiation initiatives and also to oblige and assure Pakistan as a permanent member of Security Council.”

Any such utterance of China in the UN as seen in the past and now has no taker. These are the noises of parties that feel that they have lost a handle against India when internal rearrangement has been done within the Indian Territory, Dubey adds.

Leaders Will Visit Historic Sites

After the talks, the two leaders will also visit some monuments that have been identified as the UNESCO World Heritage site. Mamallapuram or Mahabalipuram besides being a coastal town situated on the Coromandel Coast and is also historically important.

The first informal summit between the two leaders had taken place in Wuhan Province and it was from April 27-28, which had taken place after the Doklam standoff of 2017 and the two leaders had discussed a wide range of national and international issues.