New Delhi,
Half a dozen meetings over two days with nearly 10 hours of conversation for personal bonding between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping and ‘strategic to long term perspectives’ shared. As curtains came down on the first informal summit meeting in Wuhan city between the top leaders of Asia’s two largest economies, both sides hoped to institutionalise this new dialogue tool with India planning to host version 2.0 on its soil next year.

While there was no joint statement, as reported earlier by The Tribune, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement read: “The forward-looking dialogue raised the level of strategic communication about the perspective, priorities and vision that guide their respective policy choices domestically, regionally and globally. It also helped them in forging a common understanding of the future direction of India-China relations built upon mutual respect for each other’s developmental aspirations and prudent management of differences with mutual sensitivity.”

On the second and final day of the summit, PM Modi and President Xi strolled around only with translators and no aides, along the banks of the scenic East Lake, the largest urban lake in China. Later, conversations continued as they took a ride in a house boat. Prior to his departure for Delhi, PM Modi was hosted for a private lunch by President Xi. From India’s national flag and bird designed on the luncheon menu card to peacock sugar lumps for “chai pey charcha” to the 1982 Bollywood hit song “ Yeh vaada raha” playing out during the Friday dinner — special attention was paid to details by President Xi.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale called the enhanced communication between the leaders and the political will to strengthen communication between governments and militaries as key takeaways from Wuhan. Describing the talks as direct, free and candid, he mentioned that both leaders discussed a range of issues, including climate change, terrorism, trade, partnering for regional stability, including in Afghanistan, to the trust deficit stemming out of the bilateral boundary dispute.

“The two leaders underscored that it is important to maintain peace along the India-China border region and decided that they will issue strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication to build trust and understanding,” said Gokhale.

With the memories of the Doklam military standoff still fresh, Delhi and Beijing have agreed to more information-sharing on boundary issues. In a significant statement, China signalled its flexibility on another key contentious issue of OBOR (One Belt, One Road). India, as the latest full member of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), along with Pakistan, remains the sole voice objecting to the ambitious connectivity project.

India’s objection is to the CPEC (China-Pak Economic Corridor) passing through occupied PoK, hailed as the flagship project of OBOR or BRI (Belt and Road Initiative). Answering media queries, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said China had no intentions of forcing India to accept OBOR. “We won’t force them to do something they don’t want to do,” he was quoted as saying, as China prepares to welcome SCO heads for the summit meeting in June in Qingdao.

At a time when the Trump Administration seems to be sparking off a trade war adversely impacting India and China, PM Modi and President Xi also discussed trade convergence and challenges. “Both leaders agreed to push forward bilateral trade and investment in a balanced and sustainable manner by taking advantage of complementarities between their two economies,” said Gokhale.