File photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping

Chinese President Xi Jinping will be on a two -day visit to India from Friday to take part in the 2nd Informal Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Wednesday.

Jinping, who will be on a visit to India for Friday and Saturday, will take part in the 2nd Informal Summit in Chennai and will go to Nepal on Sunday.

The MEA stated that the two leaders had their inaugural informal summit in China’s Wuhan in April last year.

“At the invitation of the Prime Minister, the President of the People’s Republic of China H.E. Mr. Xi Jinping will be visiting Chennai, India from October 11-12, 2019 for the 2nd Informal Summit,” MEA added.

“The two leaders had their inaugural Informal Summit in Wuhan, China on 27-28 April 2018,” it further added.

The MEA also stated that the upcoming informal summit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to continue their discussions on overarching issues of bilateral, regional and global importance.

The two leaders will also exchange views on strengthening further ties of friendship between India and China.

It is expected that the Chinese president will be visiting historical monuments along with Modi in Tamil Nadu.

It may be mentioned that the first informal summit between India and China was held months after a 73-day standoff between the armies of the two countries at Doklam in 2017.

The standoff took place after Chinese troops had started constructing a road in the southern side of Doklam in June 2017.

However, the two armies later called off the standoff after the road construction issue was withdrawn in August 2017.