A summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit will be among the centrepieces of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan and China next week.Modi will embark on his visit to Japan and China on August 29, the external affairs ministry announced on Friday. He is also expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the SCO Summit in the Chinese city of Tianjin, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The visit comes against the backdrop of a recent thaw in India-China relations and growing estrangement between New Delhi and Washington over trade-related issues. The visit to Japan is expected to yield several significant outcomes, particularly in the fields of economic security and investment, the people said.
Modi will visit Japan at the invitation of Ishiba from August 29 to 30 to participate in the 15th India-Japan Annual Summit, the external affairs ministry said. This will be Modi’s first summit with Ishiba.
During the visit, the two leaders will review the special strategic and global partnership between India and Japan, including defence, security, trade, economy, technology and innovation, the ministry said. People-to-people exchanges and regional and global issues will also figure in their discussions.
“The visit will reaffirm the longstanding special bond of friendship between the two countries,” the ministry said.
In the second leg of his visit, Modi will travel to China at the invitation of President Xi from August 31 to September 1 to attend the SCO Summit in Tianjin. The ministry said Modi will hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, but did not provide details.
The people said that in addition to Xi, Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and several Central Asian leaders on the margins of the SCO Summit.
This will also be Modi’s first visit to China since 2018. Bilateral ties plummeted to their lowest point in six decades due to the military face-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that began in April-May 2020. The two sides reached an understanding on ending the standoff last October, and Modi and Xi subsequently met in the Russian city of Kazan and agreed to revive several mechanisms to normalise bilateral relations and address their border dispute.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to India this week resulted in a slew of initiatives to normalise relations, ranging from the resumption of direct flights and border trade to an “early harvest” in border delimitation and promotion of trade and investment flows.
On Thursday, Chinese ambassador Xu Feihong likened the US to a “bully” over its trade and tariff policies and said China will stand with India to safeguard the multilateral trading order.