Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit this week at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he would also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first meeting between the two leaders after the BJP's massive victory in the general elections. Xi will pay state visits to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan from June 12 to 16, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang announced on Sunday.

The SCO summit is due to be held on June 13-14 in Bishkek. The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017.

From June 12 to 14, President Xi will pay a state visit to Kyrgyzstan and attend SCO summit, Lu said in a statement.

Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri said last week that the two leaders would meet on the side-lines of the SCO summit.

Recalling last year's successful first ever informal summit between Xi and Modi at Wuhan which was widely regarded a milestone in the bilateral ties, Misri said, "it is worth mentioning that last year, our leaders met four times on the sidelines of different multi-lateral meetings."

They are again meeting in Bishkek on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, he said.

The April 27-28 Wuhan summit between Modi and Xi was largely credited to have turned around the bilateral relations soured by the 73-day Doklam standoff, triggered by Chinese troops attempts to build a road close to Indian border in an area also claimed by Bhutan in 2017.

After the Wuhan summit, both the countries stepped up efforts to improve relations on different spheres including the military-to-military ties.

In December last year, Prime Minister Modi met President Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina and discussed joint efforts to further enhance mutual trust and friendship between the two giant neighbours.

Last month, Xi extended his "heartfelt congratulations" to Prime Minister Modi for winning the general elections, in a rare gesture of greeting a foreign leader well before the official announcement of the results.

After the SCO summit, President Xi will travel to Tajikistan, Lu said.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) concluded its four-day visit to India on Saturday and both sides pledged to enhance mutual trust and boost cooperation in various fields.

During the visit, head of the CPC delegation Li Xi, who is a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and the secretary of the party's Guangdong Provincial Committee, met India's new External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and other political leaders, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Li said that under the guidance of the leaders of both countries, China-India relations have shown a strong momentum of development and his visit is aimed at implementing the important consensus of the leaders, enhancing mutual trust and expanding pragmatic cooperation, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Li has conveyed China's firm position, confidence and determination on China-US trade frictions, the report said.

China and India share common interests in promoting world multi-polarisation, economic globalisation and maintaining multilateralism, Li said, adding that China is willing to work with India to jointly meet challenges and share development opportunities.

The CPC is willing to exchange experiences in governance with the major political parties in India and consolidate the political foundation of China-India relations, he said.

First Published:Jun 9, 2019 7:40 PM IST