Subramanian Swamy tells PM Modi to avoid meeting Xi; 'Send Rajnath & tell China to vacate'

Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday citing media reports stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not participate in SCO, BRICS and G20 meetings in November as Chinese president Xi Jinping is also scheduled to participate in it. Dr Swamy said that PM Modi should instead ask Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to represent India and tell China to vacate.

'PM should not participate in such meetings'

According to media reports, Xi and Modi are scheduled to meet each other, albeit virtually, at least three times. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Heads of State summit on November 10 will be their first encounter since tensions started simmering between the two Asian giants along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. PM Modi and Jinping are expected to face each other over video at the BRICS annual summit on November 17 and the G20 summit between November 21 and 22.

Reports stated that the External Affairs Ministry is making hectic preparations for all these summits and meetings, especially to push India’s efforts to have a greater role in the manufacturing and delivery of vaccines for COVID-19.

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The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) is known as an influential bloc that represents over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world's population. The BRICS countries have a combined GDP of USD 16.6 trillion. "The theme of the meeting of the leaders of BRICS countries is 'BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and Innovative Growth'," the Russian government said in a statement.

The Russian statement also said, "this year the five countries have continued close strategic partnership on all the three major pillars: peace and security, economy and finance, cultural and people-to-people exchanges."

India and China are locked in a bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh since early May that has significantly strained the bilateral ties. Both sides have held a series of diplomatic and military talks to resolve the row. However, no breakthrough has been achieved to end the standoff.  Meanwhile, China on Wednesday said its border standoff with India in eastern Ladakh is a bilateral issue and asked the US to "stop" its Indo-Pacific strategy, terming it as an attempt to impose American hegemony in the region.

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(With PTI inputs)