Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharman will visit China in the last week of April this year. The announcement of her visit comes a day after the tectonic shift in China’s political structure which granted Xi Jinping the right to remain ‘President for life’.

According to TV media reports, the date of Sitharaman’s visit has not yet been finalised.

The Defence Minister’s visit assumes significance as a new China emerged under Xi Jinping on Sunday following the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) decision to remove the two-term limit imposed by Deng Xiaoping in 1982. Xiaoping had introduced the term limit to avert a situation akin to the absolute rule of Mao Zedong.

Ratifying a key amendment in the Constitution, the party placed absolute power in Xi’s hands giving his anti-graft drive the boost he sought. Many believe that the decision will have ramifications on the foreign policies of many countries with regard to China, including India.

Relations between China and India had reached the lowest since 1962 following the Doklam crisis in which the militaries from both sides came face to face at the strategically important point. But both sides have had a few positive exchanges since.

The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had recently said that called for cohesion and cooperation between India and China.

Wang called for replacement of suspicion with trust. “The Chinese dragon and the Indian elephant must not fight but dance together,” he said.

“Despite some tests and difficulties, the China-India relationship continues to grow. In the process, China has both upheld its legitimate rights and interests and taken care to preserve the relationship,” Wang said.

Reacting to Wang’s statement, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media on 9 March that “relations between India and China are not just important bilaterally but also have regional and global significance”.

Referring to the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Xiamen in September 2017, the MEA said that both sides have maintained regular exchanges at all levels, which have helped in strengthening bilateral communication.