Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang at a meeting on Thursday that the state of India-China relations was “abnormal” as their talks focused on addressing the challenges in bilateral ties, particularly those of peace and Tranquility on the border areas.
Jaishankar’s first face-to-face meeting with Qin took place on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ conclave amid the more than 34-month border dispute in eastern Ladakh. Qin took over as China’s foreign minister in December, succeeding Wang Yi.
“It’s our first meeting since he took over as Secretary of State. We spent maybe around 45 minutes talking to each other and understandably most of our conversation revolved around the current state of our relationship, which many of you have described as abnormal,” Jaishankar told reporters.
“And those were among the adjectives I used at that meeting. There are real issues in this relationship that need to be looked at, that need to be discussed very openly and honestly between us,” he said.
The foreign minister said the focus of the meeting is on bilateral relations.
“We also had a brief discussion about what is going on in the G20 framework. But the focus of the meeting was really on our bilateral relationship and the challenges in the bilateral relationship, especially peace and tranquility in the border areas,” he said.
Qin arrived in Delhi on Thursday morning to attend the G20 meeting hosted by India under his presidency of the influential group.
“I met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang this afternoon on the sidelines of #G20FMM. Our talks focused on addressing current challenges to the bilateral relationship, particularly peace and tranquility in the border areas,” Jaishankar previously said on Twitter.
“We also discussed the G20 agenda,” he said.
Qin also had a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Speaking at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, Qin highlighted China’s peace plan to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
“Global development and prosperity cannot be achieved without a peaceful and stable international environment. Against this background, China has proposed the Global Security Initiative and issued the position paper on the political solution to the Ukraine crisis,” he said.
“China will always stand on the side of peace, actively promote peace talks and play a constructive role,” he said.
In his remarks, he also said that the G20 must contribute to global development and prosperity.
“The G20 is the leading forum for international economic cooperation. In the face of a volatile international situation and increasing global challenges, the G20 must rise to the occasion, improve cooperation and do its part for global development and prosperity,” he said.
India has claimed that if there is no peace in the border areas, its relations with China cannot be normal.
The talks between the foreign ministers came almost eight months after Jaishankar’s meeting with then-Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bali on the sidelines of a G20 meeting.
At the hour-long meeting on July 7, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang the need for early resolution of all outstanding issues in East Ladakh.
The foreign minister had told Wang that the relationship between the two countries should be based on “three reciprocals” – mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests.
Wang had visited India in March last year,
In line with a decision made in the 16th round of military talks, the two sides conducted a withdrawal from Patrol Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings area in September last year.
But the confrontation between the planet’s two largest forces continued in the Demchok and Depsang regions, although the Indian side pressed for the withdrawal to be completed at the earliest at the remaining friction points.
On February 22, India and China held face-to-face diplomatic talks in Beijing and discussed proposals for a disengagement in the remaining friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in east Ladakh in an “open and constructive manner”.
The meeting took place within the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC).
On May 5, 2020, a border conflict erupted in eastern Ladakh after a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area.
Relations between the two countries have plummeted following the violent Galwan Valley clash in June 2020, which marked the worst military conflict between the two sides in decades.
As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, both sides completed the withdrawal process in 2021 on the north and south shores of Pangong Lake and the Gogra area.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by the staff at Business Standard; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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