E-Paper
High-level talks as China's FM visits India for 1st time since border tensions
This was shortly after the Chienese foreign minister met the National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in the national capital.
Foreign minister S Jaishankar met China's Wang Yi in Delhi on Friday for high-level talks, a day after the Chinese foreign minister arrived in India for his first visit since tensions arose at border of the two countries in 2020. Twenty Indian soldiers died in the line of duty in a clash in June 2020 where Beijing also suffered a loss of troops. Since then, more than a dozen military commander level talks have been held between the two nations.
As the two foreign ministers began the delegation level talks,. S Jaishankar tweeted a picture of the two of them together and wrote: “Greeted Chinese FM Wang Yi at Hyderabad House. Our discussions commence shortly.- (sic)” This was shortly after the Chinese minister met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Delhi.
Ahead of the talks with his Chinese counterpart, S Jaishankar on Thursday had said: "Few would have anticipated ... the turn that India’s relations with China have taken in the last two years. Any prudent policy therefore backs its posture with capabilities and deterrence. A big responsibility of Indian diplomacy, therefore, is to create the widest set of options for such contingencies."
The talks also come as Russia's offensive in Ukraine completes a month. Both India and China have abtained from voting against the Kremlin at the United Nations yet they have called for an immediate end to the violence.
Wang Yi, earlier this week, visited Pakistan. Before coming to India, he also visited Afghanistan. He is set to visit Nepal next. Before he began the South Asia tour, there was no information about his India visit.
On Wednesday, India had rejected the top Chinese diplomat's remarks at at the opening ceremony of a meeting of the council of the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that was hosted by Pakistan. “Matters related to the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir is entirely the internal affairs of India. Other countries, including China, have no locus standi to comment. They should note that India refrains from the public judgement of their internal issues,” foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Baghchi had said.
Wang Yi, speaking at the event, had said: “On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope.” This was after Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan accused India and Kashmir of "war crimes" in Israel and Palestine.
(With inputs from Reuters)
