Chinese FM Wang Yi holds talks with EAM Jaishankar for delegation-level talks

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at Hyderabad House here on Friday for delegation-level talks.

New Delhi: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at Hyderabad House here on Friday for delegation-level talks. Before meeting Jaishankar, the Chinese Foreign Minister visited National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's office in South Block. The Chinese Foreign Minister arrived in New Delhi on Thursday. The key objective of Wang's visit is to restart physical engagement and also invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for BRICS meet to be hosted by Beijing later this year.

Prior to his India visit, the Chinese foreign minister had attended the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Islamabad where he said, "On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope." However, India had rejected his remarks on Kashmir and said that other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment on its internal affairs. This is the first visit of a senior Chinese leader to India in two years since the border stand-off between the two countries since May 2020.

Last month, EAM Jaishankar had said that India's relations with China are going through a "very difficult phase" after Beijing violated the border agreements and asserted that the "state of the border will determine the state of the relationship". After the Galwan Valley clash, both countries have held several rounds of border talks to resolve the standoff. India has called for complete disengagement in eastern Ladakh at all friction points.

On March 11, the 15th round of Corps Commander level talks were held between the two countries on the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo border point in which both sides agreed to maintain the security and stability along the Line of Actual Control in the Western Sector. Last year in July, EAM Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe, where he conveyed that that unilateral change of status quo of the border area is not acceptable to India.

This was the second face-to-face talk between Jaishankar and Wang Yi since the stand-off started in early May 2020 at the LAC. Months after the Galwan Valley clash, Jaishankar held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on the sidelines of the SCO meeting in September 2020 to discuss developments in the India-China border areas as well as on India-China relations.

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with Agency inputs