Top leaders' dialogue 'a milestone'

Xi and Ma scheduled to meet on Saturday to exchange views on peaceful development

The scheduled meeting between leaders of both sides of the Taiwan Straits, Xi Jinping and Ma Yingjeou, will be "a milestone in nearly seven decades of cross-Straits relations", the mainland's Taiwan affairs chief said on Wednesday.

Xi, general secretary of the Communist Party of China, will meet with Taiwan leader Maon Saturday in Singapore during his two-day visit to the country, according to Zhang Zhijun, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.