INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit China in May, the foreign minister said on Sunday (February 1)
during her own three-day visit to Beijing.
“Mr. Modi is going to come in May. I will give them dates today. This is a preparatory visit,” Sushma Swaraj told
Indian reporters in Beijing.
Swaraj is holding three-way talks with her Chinese and Russian counterparts during the trip, her first official
visit since she took office last year.
US president Barack Obama last week paid a high-profile visit to India aimed at bolstering ties between the
two countries, which share an interest in curbing China's growing regional influence
Although neither side mentioned China by name during Obama's three-day visit, the US president welcomed
what he called a “greater role for India in the Asia-Pacific” and said freedom of navigation in the region must
be upheld.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.
Modi is widely seen as taking a more assertive line on China than the previous government.
But experts say he will be careful not to alienate China, whose investment he desperately needs as he tries to
boost India's economy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping was expected to take Modi to his home province of Shaanxi to repay the
hospitality he received in the Indian premier's home state last September.
