Modi bids goodbye to China; how well did the informal summit go?

2 days, 7 events and 9 hours. That’s how long Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping spent together.

Although PM Modi has bid farewell to China and landed in India, getting ready for the Karnataka elections, one has to ponder on how well the meeting has gone between the 2 leaders.

“The way in which the interactions have happened in the past two days shows that the purpose for which the meeting was planned has been accomplished. Greater bonhomie, greater effort at mutual understanding and greater rapport between the leaders has been achieved,” Ram Madhav told PTI on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai on Saturday evening.

When asked if the talks at Chinese President Xi Jinping’s hometown Wuhan would help avoid standoffs like the recent one in Doklam, Mr. Madhav said, “There is no longer any frostiness in our relationship; it has all gone”.

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The BJP leader said the process of addressing the bilateral concerns was on and that the just-concluded informal meeting between the two leaders would be of much help.

When asked about what should be the next logical step in this direction, he pointed out that PM Modi would be traveling for the next Shanghai Cooperation Organisation leaders’ meet in June.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrapped up his two-day visit to the central Chinese city on Saturday and returned to the national capital last evening.

Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said PM Modi and Xi Jinping have decided to issue a “strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communications and to build trust and understanding, which will help avoid Dokalam-like situations in the future.

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Mr. Gokhale said PM Modi’s talks with Xi focused on diverse areas of Indio-China cooperation.

“We discussed ways to give impetus to our economic ties as well as people-to-people relations. Other areas we spoke about include agriculture, technology, energy, and tourism,” Mr. Gokhale said.

The foreign secretary also said the two leaders underscored the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility in all areas of the border in the larger interest of the overall development of bilateral ties.