PM Modi Lands In China After 7 Years To Attend SCO Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in China on Saturday after more than seven years. The visit was widely followed and took on importance given the abrupt decline in India-US relations brought on by Washington's trade policies.

The main reason Modi is in China is to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) annual meeting, which takes place on August 31 and September 1.

According to PTI, given Washington's tariff battle, which has affected nearly all of the world's major economies, his planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Sunday has taken on more importance.

Modi and Xi are anticipated to assess India-China economic relations at the discussions and discuss how to further normalise strained relations after the eastern Ladakh border dispute. On the second and last leg of his two-nation tour, the prime minister travelled from Japan to this Chinese metropolis.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Modi is also anticipated to have bilateral discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and several other leaders. Prior to his visit to Tianjin, Modi stated that cooperation between China and India is crucial to restoring stability to the global economic system.

In an interview with Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, Modi said a stable, predictable, and amicable bilateral relations between India and China can have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity.

"Given the current volatility in world economy, it is also important for India and China, as two major economies, to work together to bring stability to the world economic order," Modi said in the interview published on Friday.

Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, visited India less than two weeks prior to Modi's visit to China.

The two sides announced several steps for a "stable, cooperative and forward-looking" cooperation after Wang's extensive discussions with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

PTI reported that reopening border trade, restarting direct flight services as soon as possible, and jointly maintaining calm along the disputed frontier were among the initiatives.

Following the deadly skirmishes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, both sides have taken several steps in recent months to reestablish their strained relationship.

The prime minister's last trip to China was to the SCO meeting in June 2018.  In October 2019, Chinese President Xi made his second "informal summit" trip to India.

After the disengagement procedure from the remaining two places of contention, Demchok and Depsang, was completed in accordance with an agreement reached on October 21 of last year, the eastern Ladakh face-off was essentially over.