Modi, Trump congratulate Xi; Kim Jong-un sends a special note too

As China entered the Xi era with the consecration of President Xi Jinping among the pantheon of Chinese greats like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, there has been a flood of messages from world leaders congratulating Mr. Xi on his elevation as one of the most powerful leaders of his country.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi choose to send a message through his Weibo account (a Chinese social network à laTwitter)saying: “Congratulations to President Xi on getting re-elected as CPC General Secretary. Look forward to further promote India-China ties together.” India-China relations had come under a cloud following the 72-day long stand-off at Doklam, but the two leaders had put that behind them when they met at the BRICS summit in the Chinese city of Xiamen in September.

US President Donald Trump stuck to his favourite medium Twitter to tweet about his call to the Chinese premier. He said “Spoke to President Xi of China to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation. Also discussed NoKo & trade, two very important subjects!” Mr. Trump also posted a picture of Mr. and Mrs. Xi along with him and Melania mentioning his upcoming trip to China as part of his East Asia tour in early November.“Melania and I look forward to being with President Xi & Madame Peng Liyuan in China in two weeks for what will hopefully be a historic trip!” he tweeted.

Interestingly, even as the US has been exerting pressure on China to rein in the roughish regime of North Korea, Kim Jong-un has sent a congratulatory message to Mr. Xi “wishing him great success in his future endeavours as head of the nation”. North Korea’s state-run Central News Agency said that the message“expressed the conviction that the relations between the two parties and the two countries would develop in the interests of the peoples of the two countries.”

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