New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold an informal summit in China's Wuhan city from April 27 to 28, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced on Sunday.


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PM Modi will be visiting the central Chinese city at the invitation of President Xi, he said at a joint media event with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. "The two leaders will have communications of a strategic nature concerning the once in a century shifts going on in the world. They will also exchange views on overarching long-term and strategic matters concerning the future of China-India relations," Wang said.


"The informal summit will be an important occasion for them to exchange views on bilateral and international matters from an over-arching and long-term perspective with the objective of enhancing mutual communication at the level of leaders," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said.




Meanwhile, Swaraj and Yi on Sunday discussed a host of bilateral issues and ways to step up the pace of high-level interactions to improve the relationship.


"We will work closely with the Chinese leadership to take India-China cooperation to new heights," Swaraj said 


On his part, Wang said the bilateral ties have witnessed a good development and shown a positive momentum this year under the guidance of the leaders of the two nations. "On the eve of the closing of China's National People's Congress this year, President Xi Jinping received a very important phone call from PM Modi," PTI reported.


He added that the call spurred a positive momentum in the dialogue process between the two countries. "Our two leaders had in-depth exchange of views and reached important consensus on furthering the China-India relationship. We must work very hard to implement the consensus between our two leaders. India's membership to the SCO has expanded the orgainsation's potential and its influence, as well as providing a new platform for the India-China cooperation and I believe that India will make a positive and energetic contribution to the organisation," Wang said. 


Swaraj arrived in Beijing on Saturday on a four-day visit to take part in the foreign ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The EAM and Wang are met in the immediate backdrop of the recent meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and top official of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Yang Jiechi in Shanghai. 


Following the Dokalam standoff in 2017 both countries increased dialogue to scale down tensions and improve relations with talks at various levels.


(With PTI inputs)