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Jaishankar to visit China this weekend for SCO meeting, his first visit to country since 2020 standoff
Jaishankar, who will be on a three-day trip to the country starting July 13, will also hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit China this weekend for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting. The SCO is a China-led multilateral alliance which has nine permanent members, including India and Pakistan.
Jaishankar, who will be on a three-day trip to the country starting July 13, will also hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi before the SCO meeting, as reported by Hindustan Times earlier.
This will be Jaishankar's first visit to China in over five years, and after bilateral ties hit their lowest in six decades following a military standoff at the Line of Actual Control beginning April-May 2020.
During the bilateral talks in Beijing, both Jaishankar and Wang are reportedly expected to discuss a range of issues, including rare earth supplies to India, resuming direct flights between the two countries, Dalai Lama's succession and India-Pakistan tensions, Bloomberg reported citing sources.
Jaishankar and Wang have held discussions on the sidelines of multiple multilateral events since India and China reached an understanding on the stand-off in October last year.
Following the talks, Jaishankar will travel to Tianjin to attend the SCO foreign ministers council on July 14-15. Wang is also likely to visit India in July to hold discussions with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on the border issues between both countries.
Jaishankar's visit is the latest in a string of meetings held between top Indian and Chinese officials recently to work towards a solution for the border dispute and to normalise ties between countries.
Rajnath Singh had visited China last month for the SCO defence minister's meet in Qingdao. National security adviser Ajit Doval had also visited China to attend the SCO Security Council Secretaries in Beijing in June.
Doval and Wang, who are the Special Representatives for the border issue, also held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the SCO meet.
