Ahead of Modi-Xi meet in South Africa, Bejing moots 'China-India plus one' cooperation model

Ahead of the meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Bejing has suggested "China-India plus one" or "China-India plus X" cooperation model.

"We hope that the two sides will follow through on the consensus between the two leaders to vigorously explore 'China-India plus one'or 'China-India plus X'cooperation to achieve mutual benefits and win-win outcomes between China and India and other countries, and jointly make contributions to promoting regional and world peace, stability, development and prosperity,"China's foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang noted.

The comments come at a time of growing camaraderie between India and China.

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This will be the third meeting between PM Modi and President XI in four months. In April, both met for the informal summit in Wuhan, they later met again in Qingdao on the sidelines of SCO summit and will now meet on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. China hopes the third meeting will showcase "the positive momentum in China-India relations".

Interestingly, both the leaders were hosted by Rwanda earlier this week. Both PM Modi and President Xi are currently on visits to Africa. The comments come at a time when China is also trying to engage with Bhutan.

In the highest-level interaction between China and Bhutan since the Doklam incident, China's Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou was on a visit to Thimpu from July 22to 24. During his visit to Bhutan, he called on the king of Bhutan, Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Foreign Minister Damcho Dorji and held talks with the Foreign Secretary. Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui accompanied him during the visit.

According to China's foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, the two sides exchanged in-depth views on the "China-Bhutan relations and border issues and reached common understandings".

The visit comes months before Bhutan goes to the polls and can be seen as China reaching out to Bhutan. China and Bhutan do not have formal diplomatic ties.