PM to attend BRICS summit in China next month

With the India-China military face-off at Doklam Plateau now over, New Delhi on Tuesday formally announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to the Communist country to attend the BRICS summit.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday issued a press release confirming that the prime minister would visit Xiamen in Fujian province of China from September 3 to 5 on an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to take part in the ninth summit of Brics — a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

The 72-day face-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan had started casting a shadow on the Brics summit to be hosted by Xi.

New Delhi had not been confirming Modi’s visit to Xiamen to take part in the summit, ostensibly to put pressure on Beijing to suspend construction of a road in Doklam Plateau and resolve the face-off.

Modi and Xi are likely to have a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the BRICS summit. India is keenly looking forward to Modi-Xi meeting in Xiamen to bring its bilateral relations with China back on track after the face-off at Doklam Plateau.

New Delhi said that it looks forward to continuing its engagement with Beijing on the basis of the understanding reached by Modi and Xi on June 9, when they had a bilateral meeting on the sideline of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit at Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.