New Delhi: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his two-day visit to India beginning on Monday, according to the external affairs ministry.
The meeting, scheduled for August 19, assumes significance as it comes less than a fortnight before Modi’s planned trip to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit.
This will be Modi’s first visit to China since the start of the military face-off on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in April-May 2020. Modi and President Xi Jinping are expected to hold a bilateral meeting on the margins of the SCO Summit, their second since the end of the standoff on the LAC last October.
Soon after his arrival in New Delhi on Monday afternoon, Wang will meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar, according to an official schedule from the external affairs ministry. Wang will meet National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Tuesday morning for the 24th meeting of the Special Representatives on the boundary issue.
Wang will then meet Modi at the prime minister’s official residence on Tuesday evening. He will leave India early on Wednesday morning.
Several reports have suggested Wang is expected to travel to Kabul from New Delhi for a trilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The meeting was earlier scheduled to be held in Islamabad last month but Muttaqi was unable to travel to Pakistan because of travel restrictions related to UN Security Council sanctions against him.
{{/usCountry}}Several reports have suggested Wang is expected to travel to Kabul from New Delhi for a trilateral meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar and Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The meeting was earlier scheduled to be held in Islamabad last month but Muttaqi was unable to travel to Pakistan because of travel restrictions related to UN Security Council sanctions against him.
{{/usCountry}}The reports have also suggested that Wang may make a trip to Islamabad.
Wang’s visit to India for the meeting of Special Representatives is part of efforts by New Delhi and Beijing to normalise their relations after the end of the standoff on the LAC and to address the long-standing border dispute. It is also part of preparations for Modi’s upcoming visit to China for the SCO Summit on August 31 and September 1.
The two Special Representatives are expected to discuss confidence-building measures for peace and tranquillity along the contested border, including resumption of border trade, review the situation on the LAC, and explore a mutually acceptable framework for addressing the border issue, people familiar with the matter said. At their last meeting in December, Doval and Wang “resolved to inject more vitality into this process”, according to an Indian readout.
India and China are in advanced negotiations on resuming direct flights and trade through selected border posts, and there has been “forward movement” on restrictions imposed by China on fertiliser exports to India, the people said.
In recent months, India and China resumed the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to the Tibet region and New Delhi resumed tourist visas for Chinese nationals.
Wang’s trip is also important as it comes at a time of strains in India-US ties over President Donald Trump doubling tariffs on Indian goods to 50%, including a penalty of 25% for Russian oil purchases.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Jaishankar have held bilateral meetings with their Chinese counterparts when they visited China in the past two months to attend SCO meetings.