New Delhi: On the eve of the much-awaited two-day informal summit that will begin in the central Chinese industrial city of Wuhan on Friday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Mr Modi on Thursday said developments would be reviewed in Sino-Indian relations from a “strategic and long-term perspective” and views would be exchanged “on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance”. He also said the vision that both leaders had for their respective countries and priorities for national development would also be shared at the summit. Mr Modi made these comments just before his departure for Wuhan.

In a series of tweets, Mr Modi said: “I will be visiting Wuhan, China, on 27-28 April 2018 for an informal summit with Mr Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China. President Xi and I will exchange views on a range of issues of bilateral and global importance. We will discuss our respective visions and priorities for national development, particularly in the context of current and future international situation. We will also review the developments in India-China relations from a strategic and long-term perspective.”

The informal summit comes at a time when the two giant neighbours are trying to put their ties back on track after the bitterness of the Sino-Indian military standoff last year at Doklam in Bhutanese territory. Observers see the informal summit as the most serious initiative between the two countries to repair ties since the Doklam faceoff, which badly damaged ties between the two neighbours.

It was initially speculated whether matters such as India’s request to Hong Kong for the provisional arrest of PNB scam accu-sed Nirav Modi, India’s attempts to secure membership of the Nuclear Su-ppliers’ Group (NSG) and the issue of proposed UN sanctions on Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azhar would be discussed between the two leaders. Though sources had rec-ently said “specific” issu-es would not be discussed at the summit, it remains to be seen whether India is able to strongly convey its views on these matters across directly to President Xi.

Sources said earlier this week that the informal summit was planned with the objective of “strategic communication” between the two countries at the top leadership level. Sour-ces had also said there would be no joint statement or communiqué at the end of the discussions, adding that there would be “no issue-based discussions nor any resolution of individual problems” between the two countries.

Sources said the objective was to have a “communication at the highest level” for the “perspective” that each leader has of the other’s domestic and international policies and to understand each other’s “vision”. The vision that each leader will outline to the other will be of their respective “domestic policies and how it affects the external environment”.

It was decided earlier by the two countries that the two leaders would meet informally ahead of a formal meeting of the multilateral Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June, where several other heads of state and government are also expected to be present. An informal summit — where the two leaders will hold informal discussions with their interpreters being the only other persons present — was decided upon instead of a regular formal summit which would have had a very “structured” format with delegations acco-mpanying the leaders.

This will be the first time that the Chinese side is holding such an informal summit in their country between the Chinese President and another world leader.