Mamallapuram decked up for second India-China Informal Summit

Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, India

With heavy security, a freshly painted wall and banana tree-lined roads, the tourist town of Mamallapuram, Chennai suburb is all set to host Asia's two important leaders -- Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping for the second informal summit.

The first summit took place in Wuhan, China and the focus of this year's summit will be too keep the momentum generated from the last year's summit.

Friday afternoon around 2pm local time President Xi will be reaching Chennai and by 5pm, Modi will give him a guided tour of three important UNESCO world heritage sites -- Arjuna’s Penance, Panch Rathas and Shore Temple. Chinese President will be driving down to the suburb from Chennai and will be joined PM Modi. 

The fact that Mamallapuram hosts world heritage sites coupled with its coastal links with China dating back to sixth century Pallava dynasty played a key role in it hosting the summit.

Both leaders will see cultural performances at the Shore temple followed by a dinner in the evening. On Saturday, both will meet again and after the lunch, President Xi leaves for Nepal, the first visit by Chinese President in decades.

Since its an informal summit, no joint statement is expected but both sides will issue separate statements in a coordinated manner. The trade deficit stands at 57.86 billion dollars and while greater market access has been given to Indian agriculture products like rapeseed, fishmeal, tobacco leaves, chilli meal, India is hoping it is translated into volumes.

On border dispute, both sides are expected to start work on new confidence-building measures that could be announced later this year. 

One of the key outcomes of the Wuhan informal summit that happened in the backdrop of 2017 Doklam crisis, was strategic guidance being given by both leaders to there armies to resolve any issue at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in a sensible manner.