As discussions between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping resumed at Taj Fisherman's Cove in Kovalam near Chennai, issues of trade, investment, tourism, terrorism and radicalisation took prominence with a focus on exchanging national vision and ideas on governance. The two leaders, earlier during their 110-minute-long meeting on Friday, discussed at length on development. Prime Minister Modi is said to have told Xi that his renewed mandate was for economic development and the Chinese leader responded by saying that his country is willing to work closely with India.
“The leaders have already spent over five hours in close conversation with each other and the quality time embraced a host of issues, that will resume on Saturday. They discussed on trade and the threat posed by terrorism,” foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale told the media, late Friday night after the two leaders held discussions at length over dinner at Mamallapuram (popularly known as Mahabalipuram).
On the second day of the informal talks, a host of issues including the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, anti-China protests by Tibetan groups, market access for Indian goods and services in China and RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) will be discussed. The leaders are also likely to discuss border issues. India and China share a 3,500km-long border, over which the two countries went to war in 1962. Though the border is largely peaceful, there are occasional stand-offs between soldiers of the two Asian giants. In this context, border trade, tourism, joint military patrols to increase the amount of trust in each other could also come up during the meeting.
The talks resumed on Saturday at a time when China has opened its important round of trade talks with the US. China’s chief trade negotiator and Vice President Liu He is all set to open talks with the US, to clear the frost between the two countries. The outcome of the China-USA talks could impact India. This, too, could come up during the talks among the two leaders and later at delegation-level talks at Kovalam. Modi and Xi will also discuss the ballooning trade deficit with China and the issue of allowing Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei into India’s 5G network.
Meanwhile, India's Ambassador to China Vikram Misiri wrote in a Chinese publication that “the relationship between India and China becomes important as there is a stress on traditional frameworks of global governance and the emergence of challenges that no single country can tackle by itself.”
The delegation-level talks will follow once the one-on-one talks between the two leaders are done The delegation-level talks will take the discussion between the two leaders forward. Modi and Xi will then meet for lunch after which Xi will leave Chennai for Nepal.