Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday left for India after holding the two-day informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the central Chinese city, Wuhan.
Mr. Modi had arrived in China on April 26 for the unprecedented informal summit with Mr. Xi.
The Prime Minister held one-on-one talks with Xi which is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Doklam standoff in 2017.
The two leaders exchanged views on “solidifying” the India-China relationship and decided to issue strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communications and to build trust and understanding.
They recognised terrorism as common threat and committed to cooperate further on counter-terrorism.
Mr. Modi also offered to host the next informal summit with Mr. Xi in India next year, a proposal which elicited a positive response from the Chinese President.
The two leaders began their informal meetings way back in 2014 when Mr. Xi was hosted by Mr. Modi at the Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in Gujarat. They have met and interacted with each other in about a dozen international meetings since then.
This is the fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is again due to visit China to take part in the SCO summit to be held at Qingdao city on June 9-10.
Mr. Modi was seen off by Chinese Vice-Foreign Minster, Kong Xuanyou and Chinese Ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui and other officials.
'Held extensive, fruitful talks'
Mr. Modi on Saturday said he held “extensive and fruitful” talks with Mr. Xi during their first round of two-day informal summit in Wuhan.
“I am very pleased to meet with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan. We conducted extensive and fruitful talks and exchanged opinions on strengthening India-China relations and other international issues,” Mr. Modi said in a post on the popular Chinese social media site Weibo, where he has 1,83,112 followers.
“Thank you, President Xi Jinping, for the wonderful gesture of personally accompanying me in the Hubei Provincial Museum. The Museum is home to great facets of Chinese history and culture,” he said.
Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi are due to conclude their unprecedented informal summit on April 28, seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Doklam standoff last year.
Mr. Modi is spending only about 24 hours in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, just months after a dispute between the two countries over a stretch of their high-altitude Himalayan border.
More an informal meeting
Billed by both sides as an informal meeting rather than a summit, with none of the pomp and ceremony of a state visit such as 21-gun salutes, the two men held talks on Friday that lasted far longer than expected.
Chinese state media has praised the tone of the trip so far.
The overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily said in a front page commentary on Saturday “two great countries ought to have great cooperation”, and showed a large picture of the two leaders shaking hands.
“There is reason to believe that this Wuhan meeting will increase mutual trust, manage and control disputes, deepen cooperation and lead to a new phase in China-India relations,” it said.
“It is quite clear that strategic agreement between the two countries far exceeds the specific differences, and the need for cooperation far exceeds local friction,” it said.
