New Delhi: Chinese President Xi Jinping may visit India for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi before this year’s general elections and as early as February, a media report suggested on Wednesday.
Reporting out of Beijing and New Delhi, the Nikkei Asia Review business journal cited an Indian source as saying that the visit might happen as early as February with the elections due in May though a Chinese source was quoted as saying it will take place after China’s National People’s Congress in March.
The report comes amid speculation here about when Modi will host Xi for a return informal summit with elections around the corner. The Chinese leader hosted the Prime Minister for a similar summit in the Chinese city of Wuhan in April last year.
According to the report, the impending visit is being seen as a move by Beijing to counter Washington’s increasingly antagonistic trade policy and aggressive Indo-Pacific diplomacy.
It stated that Xi is expected to discuss with Modi measures to defuse border tensions as well. (IANS)
