Move aimed at facilitating ‘free-flowing’ talks between leaders to thrash out vexing issues

PM Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad. PTI file

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 28

In a bid to hold more meaningful India-China conversation and build greater trust amid increasingly contentious issues, plans are afoot to have Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in informal settings.Preparations for the new diplomatic initiative are under way with the idea that such a meeting in informal settings would facilitate free-flowing conversations between the two leaders, diplomatic sources told The Tribune.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The idea for such a meeting came up during the last BRICS Summit in Xiamen, China, and if things proceed according to the plan, India will be only the second country after the US with which President Xi will hold such a conversation.Xi, who has emerged as one of the most powerful leaders in contemporary China with his governing thoughts enshrined in the Constitution, has held informal meetings with US Presidents Barack Obama and Donald J Trump so far.The idea is to go into a setting without an agenda and have a free-flowing conversation, which is not pre-scripted, something like retreats are aimed at, a senior official privy to discussions said.After the last August 73-day standoff over Doklam, Modi’s participation at BRICS Summit was made possible only after Indian and Chinese troops “mutually disengaged” from the tri-junction with Bhutan.Though sections of media continue to report through satellite imagery of Chinese infrastructural build-up at the site, the Ministry of External Affairs has denied this so far. China’s veto shield to terror mastermind Masood Azhar at the Security Council and its opposition to India’s membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) remain big sticking points in ties. Beijing though feels India needs to “focus on the larger picture instead of insisting on discussing the contentious subjects”