India dismisses reports on Xi Jinping’s secret letter to Prez Murmu, calls it ‘incorrect’

Ministry of External Affairs on Friday denied a report of Chinese President Xi Jinping sending a ‘secret letter‘ to Indian counterpart Droupadi Murmu to test the waters on improving Indo-China ties. In late August, Bloomberg reported that Jinping wrote a letter to Murmu expressing concerns about any US deals that would harm China’s interests and named a provincial official who would steer Beijing’s efforts.

“We have seen that report and can confirm that the story of the letter is incorrect,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said during a press briefing.

Citing an Indian official familiar with the matter, the report said that the letter was sent across to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It wasn’t until June that Modi’s government began making a serious effort to improve relations with China, the person told Bloomberg, asking not to be identified in order to discuss internal matters.

Shortly after Xi’s letter to India’s president in March of this year, Beijing published a statement from the Chinese leader celebrating the relationship, describing it as a “dragon-elephant tango,” the report said. Soon, his top officials like Vice President Han Zheng were using the same phrase to describe warmer ties between the countries.

Read more: Xi Jinping’s secret letter to New Delhi that likely brought India-China ties back to life