Prime Minister Narendra Modi has coined a new acronym ‘STRENGTH’ to underscore the importance of people-to-people contact between India and China.
During his delegation-level talks as part of an unprecedented informal “heart-to-heart” summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in
Wuhan — the favourite holiday spot of Mao Zedong — Modi hailed the centuries old India-China ties.
The PM underscored the importance of people-to-people contact through STRENGTH: S-Spirituality; T-Tradition, Trade and Technology; R-Relationship; E-Entertainment (Movies, Art, Dances etc.); N-Nature conservation; G-Games; T-Tourism and H- Health and Healing.
He said India and China have the responsibility to work for 40 per cent of the world population. “India and China acted as engines for global economic growth for 1,600 years out of the past 2,000 years,” Modi added.
“Very positive environment (has been) created through the informal summit and you have personally contributed to it in a big way,” Modi told Xi.
He offered to host the next informal summit with Xi in India next year, a proposal which elicited a positive response from Xi. “I’ll be happy, if in 2019, we can have such informal summit in India,” Modi told Xi.
The PM thanked Xi for coming out of the Chineses capital twice to receive him. “It’s a sign of your affection for India that you have hosted me twice in China outside Beijing. The people of India feel really proud that I’m the first Prime Minister of India, for whom, you have come out of the capital twice to receive me,” said Modi to Xi.
Modi and Xi shook hands and posed for photographs before witnessing a cultural programme at Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan.
The one-to-one discussions will be followed by talks between the two leaders accompanied by six top officials from each side. The two leaders will have one-on-one dinner at a state guest house by the famous East lake.
They will resume their one-on-one interaction on Saturday at 10 am with walks by the lake side, boat ride and wind up their talks over lunch, official sources said.
The two leaders began their informal meetings way back in 2014 when Xi was hosted by Modi at the Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in Gujarat. They have met and interacted with each other in about a dozen international meetings since then.
It is a summit, according to the officials, to forge consensus to resolve the issues with follow up actions by officials than announcing any agreements. This is something the leaders of the two countries have never tried so far, they said.
“The Xi-Modi meeting in 2018 following the 2017 Dokalam standoff will without doubt promote mutual trust and reciprocity between the two countries, and will be a cornerstone of a stable long-term relationship between China and India,” the article said.
President Xi said the two countries have established closer partnership and made positive progress in recent years.
“In the past five years, we have achieved a lot. We have met each other on many occasions,” he said.
“I look forward to in-depth communication with your excellency, and ensure we can build common understanding and help to take the China-India relationship to the next level,” he added.