Modi meets Chinese President

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of the BRICS Summit here.

"The bilaterals amidst the multilateral commences. PM @narendramodi meets President XI Jinping for the first before #BRICSSummit," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted.

India is likely to take up the issue of Pakistan's state sponsorship of terrorism following last month's cross-border terror attack on an army camp at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in which 19 Indian soldiers lost their lives.

India has blamed the Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) for the attack.

In the aftermath of the attack, New Delhi launched a diplomatic blitz to isolate Pakistan in the international community while the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

During the meeting between Modi and Xi, the issue of China putting on technical hold the inclusion of JeM leader Masood Azhar in the UN Security Council's designated list of terrorists is also expected to come up.

China recently extended by six months its technical hold it had put in April.

The BRICS Summit will be held here on Sunday.

--IANS

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