The two-day informal meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi beginning Friday in Wuhan city of China is being seen with much anticipation and awe in India.
Analysts here are in an upbeat mood vis-a-vis the forthcoming meeting, the first of its kind between the two countries, saying it is expected to lay a strong foundation for a brighter relationship between the two countries in future.
According to Prasoon Sharma, founder of the think tank "India Global Centre for China Studies" (IGCCS), there are so many areas where the two countries could work together, like tourism, pharmaceutical commodities, information technology, Artificial Intelligence and digital connectivity, among others.
"Nearly 130 million Chinese tourists go out every year, but we are getting just one percent. So there is ample scope of India getting Chinese tourists if we promote our tourism in China," he said, adding, "With regard to trade, now there are opportunities for us. Recently we mentioned about trading soybean with China .... "
Professor B. R. Deepak of Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University said that the Xi-Modi informal meeting, as an attempt to iron out differences, would be very meaningful.
"I think there will be heart-to-heart talks between the two leaders ... India and China need to engage in a pragmatic and constructive way so that the frictions are done away with and stage is set for India-China relationship for the future," he told Xinhua.
According to the Sinologist, though differences would remain between the two countries, both sides can try working around them.
Deepak suggested India learn from "China's 40 years of reform experiences during which they accumulated huge capital and made breakthrough in technologies also."
"So we can build our capacities on these strong points and prepare ourselves for the economic take-off which is necessary in this country," he said.
