Amid the ongoing border dispute at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), External affairs minister S Jaishankar will on Thursday hold a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang at the backdrop of the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting. This will be the first such bilateral interaction between the two leaders.
Termed as a "fence-mending" visit to India by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post newspaper, this is Qin's first visit to New Delhi after he took over the post from his predecessor Wang Yi in December last year. He is expected to meet Jaishankar following the latter's meeting with US secretary of state Anthony Blinken.
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Significance is attached to Qin and Jaishankar’s meeting in light of progress made by the two countries in the 17 rounds of high-level military-level talks to resolve the eastern Ladakh standoff. On Wednesday, China noted that it "values" its relations with India and a "sound relationship" between the two is in the fundamental interests of both countries and its people.
"China and India are ancient civilisations and both have more than one billion people. We are neighbours and are both emerging economies. A sound China-India relationship meets the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples," Qin said.
Relations between China and India have virtually frozen ever since the eastern Ladakh military standoff between the two countries in May 2020.
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Last week, senior officials from India and China held an in-person meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) and discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining areas of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
This was the first in-person meeting of the WMCC since July 2019. Joint Secretary (East Asia) of the Ministry of External Affairs Dr Shilpak Ambule, who headed the Indian delegation, also called on Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying.
On Wednesday, Jaishankar held separate bilateral talks with his counterparts from the UK, Russia, Mexico, South Africa, the Netherlands, Argentina, Nigeria and Comoros with a focus on agenda of G20 under India's presidency and two-way cooperation in key areas.
India assumed the Presidency of the G20 on December 1, last year. The G20 members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. Other than India, the member countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, and the USA.
(With PTI inputs)
