Xi, Modi Start 'informal Summit' To Repair Ties

President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in central China on Friday as they seek to repair ties that were marred by a border dispute last year.

Xi greeted Modi at a Hubei province museum in the city of Wuhan for what has been billed as an "informal summit" that will continue on Saturday.

The two leaders discussed "strengthening the exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilisations of China and India and promoting the harmonious coexistence and dialogue of different civilisations," the official Xinhua news agency said on its social media account.

On Saturday, they will walk along the East Lake, ride a boat and have lunch together.

The summit "is New Delhi's well-intentioned attempt to reach out to Beijing to see if the past can be put behind and if the relationship can be reset," said Harsh Pant, international relations professor at King's College London.

Modi is expected to return to China in June for the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a security bloc led by Beijing and Moscow.

Indian analysts point to a pragmatic reason for Modi to want better relations with China: he faces national elections next year, and he would be better off with stable ties with the world's second-largest economy.

"I don't think he would like to go into an election with the kind of relationship, the low point it had reached over the last year," Pant said.

With China facing a potential tariff war with the United States, Beijing and New Delhi could find common ground on international trade, Pant said. (AFP)