Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold the second trilateral summit in Japan’s Osaka with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of G-20 summit. It will be held in Osaka on June 28 and June 29.

The leaders are expected to focus on opposing the “protectionist” trade policies of the United States, PTI reported. All the three leaders recently met at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek.

“Given the current international landscape, the meeting among the three leaders is also of significance,” China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Jun was quoted as saying. “As you know, China’s relations with Russia and India are showing sound momentum of growth.”

Informal meetings of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the trilateral mechanism of RICS (Russia, India and China) happen in all the multilateral summits, however, unidentified officials stressed that the Osaka meeting assumes significance because all major countries besides India, China and Russia are facing trade and tariff-related frictions with the United States.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been high for several months now because of a bitter trade war. India is also facing trade frictions with United States after termination of its “beneficiary developing country” status.

“Under the current circumstances, it is important for the three countries to strengthen coordination on major global issues and jointly uphold multilateralism, oppose protectionism and deepen cooperation on multilateral and international affairs to make important contribution to the global peace,” Zhang said.

“At the same time, it can provide impetus for the three countries to enhance cooperation at bilateral level and enhance mutual trust,” he added. “We are confident that the meeting will produce positive results.”

Xi will go there a day ahead of the summit to take part in a host of informal meetings, including his meeting with United States President Donald Trump, for key talks to end the trade war that continues following the failure of negotiations between the top two economies of the world.

India has participated in all the G-20 Summits that have happened so far and will host the G-20 summit in 2022 for the first time.

The G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Referring to the meeting of the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa on the sidelines of the G20, Zhang said the other topics of discussion at the informal meeting will include cooperation on economy, political matters, security and people to people exchanges among group to deepen cooperation and uphold the good momentum of BRICS.