Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the city of Qingdao on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, which will take place over the weekend. Earlier in the afternoon, the prime minister had met the organisation’s Secretary General Rashid Alimov.

This is the second meeting between Modi and Xi this year and the 14th in the past four years. The two leaders took stock of the progress in implementing the decisions they had taken at their informal summit in Wuhan in April.

“Further strengthening the positive momentum in the bilateral relationship generated at the Wuhan informal summit, Narendra Modi had a warm and forward-looking meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit,” tweeted Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar.

“The first and foremost important consensus reached at Wuhan was that India and China are partners in progress and in economic development,” Indian envoy Gautam Bambawale said in an interview to Chinese state media on Friday, the Hindustan Times reported.

Modi and Xi were also expected to discuss economic relations between the two countries, NDTV reported. India has been asking China to open up its information technology and pharmaceutical sectors to reduce the trade deficit. Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain will also attend the summit, but it is not known if Modi will hold discussions with him.

Modi said he would talk to leaders of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s countries and discuss a “wide range of subjects” with them. Before leaving for China, the prime minister said he was “excited to lead the Indian delegation for our first-ever meeting as a full member”.

India became a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in 2017. Other full members are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. The leaders of all these countries will meet on Saturday and Sunday to discuss how to counter terrorism and radicalisation.