Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting India on a three-day tour from August 12. Wang would try to make efforts aimed at ensuring that Prime Minister Narendra Modi do not join other countries in raising the controversial issue of South China Sea during the upcoming G20 meeting in early September.

China recently persuaded a meeting of ASEAN countries to keep the issue outside the joint communique but it is not sure of achieving a similar success at the G20 meet.

The Prime Minister is expected to meet Chinese president Xi Jinping and US president Barack Obama on the sidelines of the meeting in the Chinese city of Hangzhou during his three-day visit from September 3.

He will also meet Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi besides Kenyan foreign minister Amina Mohamed. One of Wang’s tasks during the upcoming New Delhi visit is to prepare the ground for a successful Modi-Xi meeting.

There have been a surge of problems in the India-China relationship in recent weeks. They included China’s refusal to back India’s case for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, and recent reports of incursions by Chinese troops in the Ladakh border area.