Janjivan Bureau
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit three country China, Mangolia and South Koria from May 14th to 19th. During the visit Modi tries to balance its trade deficit with its neighbour despite a simmering border dispute.
This will be Modi’s first visit to China as prime minister. In a statement posted online, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Modi will visit during May 14-16.
During the three-day China visit, Modi will visit Xian, Beijing and Shanghai. He will hold bilateral meetings with the Chinese leadership and will participate in cultural and business events.
His engagement in Mongolia on May 17 marks the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the region. He will then visit South Korea during May 18-19 to hold bilateral discussions with President Park Geun-hye and meet important business leaders in Seoul, an official statement said on Tuesday.
China is India’s biggest trading partner with two-way commerce totalling close to $70 billion. But India’s trade deficit with China has soared from just $1 billion in 2001-02 to more than $40 billion, Indian figures show.
Both sides regularly accuse the other’s soldiers of crossing over into their territory.
Modi warned China to shed its “expansionist mindset” at an election rally last year. China hit back, saying it “never waged a war of aggression to occupy any inch of land of other countries”.