Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are set to meet in Chennai on October 11 and 12 for the second informal summit.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement, "At the invitation of the Prime Minister, the President of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping will be visiting Chennai, India from October 11-12, 2019 for the 2nd Informal Summit."
"The forthcoming Chennai Informal Summit will provide an opportunity for the two leaders to continue their discussions on overarching issues of bilateral, regional and global importance and to exchange views on deepening the India-China Closer Development Partnership," it added.
Due to the meeting's informal and unstructured nature, no agreements or Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) will be signed. The meeting is focussed on strengthening the countries' partnership. The leaders will discuss schedules for the upcoming Special Representative Talks.
The Chinese President will be accompanied by NSA and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and their meeting with their counterparts, S Jaishankat and Ajit Doval will also be scheduled.
Even though the meeting will remain unstructured, discussion about peace and tranquillity at the border, trade and terrorism will be touched upon.
This informal meeting between the two nations is taking place post the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir which has led to spiked bilateral tensions between India and Pakistan.
Speaking ahead of the informal summit, Chinese foreign minister Spokesperson Geng Shuang Shuang lauded both the country's efforts to cooperate despite "differences and sensitive issues."
"China and India are important neighbours to each other. Both are large developing countries as well as major emerging markets. Since the Wuhan Informal Summit last year, China-India relations have shown sound momentum of development," he said.
The statement comes months after Beijing called New Delhi's decision to abrogate Article 370 of its constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir "unacceptable" and said it "would not have any legal effect."
China had also called for a closed-door meeting in the United Nations in solidarity with Pakistan's decision to internationalise the Kashmir issue.
Chinese ambassador Sun Weighdon took to Twitter to express hopes that the two nations would work on strengthening their bond during this meeting.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit India from October 11th to 12th for the 2nd Informal Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Chennai. Hope their Strategic guidance and friendship will usher China-India ties into a new chapter," he wrote.
In another tweet, he said, "With growing uncertainty in the international situation, China and India should strengthen cooperation on international and regional affairs, just as we once jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, which have become basic norms of international relations."
