Beijing is yet to confirm his visit, and there is no word on whether he will have a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With less than 48 hours until the BRICS summit in New Delhi, China has kept the suspense high over President Xi Jinping’s much-anticipated visit to New Delhi.
Despite that, the bilateral trade between the two nations last year rose 12.4 per cent to a record $155 billion, more than double the $71.6 billion reported 10 years earlier, according to Chinese customs data.
When asked about the president’s plans, China’s foreign ministry told news agency AFP that they “don’t have any official information” regarding the plans. China’s foreign ministry told Reuters that Xi and PM Modi, who briefly met this month at a regional forum in Kyrgyzstan, think the two countries are “partners, not competitors, and they represent opportunities, not threats, for each other’s development”. The potential meeting between Xi and PM Modi will be crucial to set the future direction of bilateral ties, they said. Harsh Pant, vice president at New Delhi’s Observer Research Foundation think tank, also noted that the “trust deficit” between the countries was high.
