Modi to visit China, Mongolia, South Korea May 14-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a three-nation official visit to China, Mongolia and South Korea from May 14-19.

His three-nation tour comes less than a month after his visit to France, Germany and Canada last month.

In China, Modi will visit Xian, Beijing and Shanghai May 14-16.

The announcement of dates of the trip comes a day after Modi joined Chinese microblogging website Sina Weibo.

Modi is to hold bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Le Keqiang and participate in cultural and business events.

The prime minister will also attend an event organised by the Indian community in China.

In Mongolia, his engagement will be on May 17. This is the first-ever visit by an Indian prime minister to Mongolia.

He will then visit the Republic of Korea on May 18-19.

Modi will hold bilateral discussions with President Park Geun-hye and meet important business leaders in Seoul, an official statement said on Tuesday. Modi has met President Park on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit and Asean in Myanmar last November.

Chinese President Xi had visited India in September last year, during which he had been received by Modi at Ahmedabad.

During the 18th round of special representative border talks, held on March 25 in New Delhi between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi, the two sides had agreed "to build on the momentum provided" by Xi's visit to further expand bilateral relations in areas such as railways, smart cities, vocational education, skill development, clean and renewable energy and manufacturing sector.

The issues on the table during the China visit are likely to be the border and the trade imbalance, as well as boosting economic and trade ties.

According to reports, Modi on Tuesday officially announced his visit to China from May 14 to 16 on Sina Weibo, saying he is looking forward to have productive discussions with top Chinese leadership.

"Looking forward to visiting China from 14-16 May to strengthen friendship between our two ancient civilisations and the two largest developing countries," Modi wrote on the Chinese microblog that has over 500 million users and is often termed the country's Twitter.

"Eagerly awaiting my visit to Xi'an, Beijing and Shanghai and my productive discussions with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang," he said in another post.