E-Paper
Important to maintain peace, tranquillity on border, PM Modi tells China’s Wang Yi
PM Modi met Wang, the first Chinese minister to visit India since the disengagement of forces on the LAC last October, following his talks with NSA Ajit Doval
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border at a meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Tuesday, and reiterated India’s commitment to a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” resolution of the boundary issue.
India-China ties have made steady progress since last year due to respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities, and stable and constructive bilateral relations will contribute to regional and global peace, Modi said, ahead of his first visit to China after the end of the four-year military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Modi met Wang, the first Chinese minister to visit India since the disengagement of forces on the LAC last October, following his talks on the border issue with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Wang also met external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Monday.
“Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi [Jinping] in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities,” Modi said in a social media post, referring to his meeting with the Chinese leader two days after India and China reached an understanding on ending the face-off at the LAC.
“I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” he said.
Modi “emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border, and reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution of the boundary question”, according to a readout from the Indian government.
He welcomed the “steady and positive progress” in bilateral ties since his meeting with Xi last year, “guided by mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity”, including the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra.
Modi thanked Xi for the invitation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, which was handed over by Wang along with a message from the Chinese president, and conveyed his acceptance. He also expressed support for China’s presidency of the SCO.
Wang shared his “positive assessment” of his meeting with Jaishankar and the talks with Doval under the Special Representatives mechanism, according to the readout.
This will be Modi’s first visit to China since the start of the LAC standoff in April-May 2020, which took bilateral relations to their lowest point since the border war in 1962. Modi last travelled to China in 2018 for the first informal summit with Xi and to attend a SCO Summit.
At their meeting in Kazan last year, Modi and Xi revived several mechanisms to normalise bilateral relations and to address the long-standing border dispute. Since then, Doval and Wang, the designated Special Representatives, have met twic,e and Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh have also met their Chinese counterparts.
The growing thaw in India-China relations has coincided with strains in relations between New Delhi and Washington, primarily over the trade and tariff policies of the Trump administration.
The talks between India and China over the past nine months led to the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to the Tibet region in April, and the resumption of tourist visas for Chinese nationals in July. Both sides are also engaged in advanced negotiations to restart direct flights and border trade, which were halted in 2020. The Indian side has acknowledged that China has begun addressing concerns related to export restrictions on rare earth minerals, fertilisers and large tunnel boring machines.
