President of India, Ram Nath Kovind and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to exchange letters of greetings to mark the beginning of celebrations of the 70th year of Sino-India ties on Wednesday.
The 70 events planned by the two countries to mark the milestone year, however, are likely to be impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that have killed more than 42,000 and infected over 80,0000 globally.
New Delhi and Beijing have finalized a long list of events to mark the year including dozens of exchange programmes and cultural, religious and trade promotion activities.
The events planned both in China and in India are likely to postponed because of the pandemic.
Both countries have enforced strict restrictions on international travel, which are unlikely to be resumed immediately, to contain the spread of the virus, according to reports.
The 70 events were finalized in line with the understanding reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their second Informal Summit at Mamallapuram on October 11-12 last year.
India was among the first non-Communist countries to recognize the People’s Republic of China (PRC) when it was formed under the rule of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1950 after years of a civil war.