Modi, Xi, Putin to meet on sidelines of G20 summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the second trilateral summit between the three leaders on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.

The summit of economic heavyweights of the world will meet in Osaka, Japan this year where they will hold discussions on global issues including Terrorism, Multilateralism, Protectionism, and Unilateralism promoted by the United States, reports said.

PM Narendra Modi had called the bloc between these countries as 'RIC' (Russia-India-China) when they met on the sidelines of G20 summit last year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. India took part in the trilateral summit with these two superpowers after 12 years. The move was hailed as a balancing act as New Delhi took part in a trilateral summit with the United States and Japan before the RIC summit.

The countries have put the agenda of protectionist measures adopted by the United States as the topmost agenda to discuss in the trilateral summit. Chinese assistant foreign minister Zhang Jun confirmed the move while briefing the media on the eve of the G20 media briefing. The summit has been finalised following the meetings of great significance took place between these leaders on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit held earlier this month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

The summit of Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok will see another round of meeting between these leaders where PM Narendra Modi is invited as the chief guest. Both India and China need the restructuring of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and China's role in Financial Action Task Force (FATF) blacklisting Pakistan for not curbing the expenditure on terrorism is vital and hence the summit holds greater value for India.

However, China has made it clear that it will not allow a discussion on Hong Kong protests at the G20 this week even as US president Donald Trump plans to raise the issue during his meeting with President Xi Jinping.