Xi, Modi meeting opportunity to enhance trust: China

Says the upcoming meeting between the two leaders in Ufa will be important to cement the strategic consensus

China today said President Xi Jinping's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ufa is an opportunity to enhance strategic mutual trust and "pragmatic" cooperation to take bilateral ties forward.

Xi and Modi both arrived in Ufa today to attend the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summits and hold bilateral parleys on the sidelines.

"This upcoming meeting between the two leaders in Ufa will be important to cement the strategic consensus, enrich the China-India Strategic Cooperative Partnership and build a closer China-India partnership for development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing.

Modi-Xi meeting was expected to the take place on the sidelines of the BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa -- summit and heads of governments meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Ufa.

Xi arrived in Ufa with high power team today, official media here reported.

"As we've always said, China and India are the largest developing countries and emerging markets in the world. With joint effort, China-India relations have seen sound and rapid development in recent years," Hua said recalling Xi's visit to India last year followed by Modi's tour of China in May this year.

"The two leaders laid out the strategic plan for the China India relationship for the next 5-10 years. We are willing to take this meeting as an opportunity to implement the consensus reached by the two leaders, enhance strategic mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation, step up cooperation on international and regional issues so as to bring more development to China-India relations," she said.

Xi's delegation to the summits included senior members of the politburo of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Wang Huning and Li Zhanshu, State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Zhou Xiaochuan, central bank governor and vice chairman of the national legislature, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Ahead of the visit, the Chinese official media has projected a positive outcome of the two summits.

"The GDP of the BRICS countries has increased from seven per cent of the global total to over 20 per cent. Especially after the financial crisis in 2008, the BRICS countries became the engine of global economic growth," a commentary by the People's Daily said about the progress made by BRICS countries.

"Even the most optimistic forecast did not predict the rapid development that BRICS economies would undergo," it said.

But at the same time "it's true that the economic growth of the BRICS countries is facing a slowdown recently, and worries are emerging that the BRICS dream is fading," it said.