Press Trust of India
BEIJING, APR 22:
India today said maintaining peace in the border areas with China was an “essential pre-requisite” for the smooth development of bilateral ties as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj held crucial talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to reset the relations after the Dokalam standoff.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and discussed a host of bilateral issues and ways to step up the pace of high-level interactions to improve the relationship.
Swaraj arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit to take part in the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
She was received by Wang at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing ahead of their bilateral meeting. This was their first meeting after Wang was elevated as state councillor last month which makes him the top diplomat of the country in the Chinese hierarchy. He also continues to be the foreign minister.
In her initial remarks, Swaraj congratulated Wang on being elevated as state councillor and appointed the special representative for the India-China boundary talks.
Wang said the bilateral ties have witnessed a good development and shown a positive momentum this year under the guidance of the leaders of the two nations.
“On the eve of the closing of China’s National People’s Congress this year, President Xi Jinping received a very important phone call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
He said the call spurred a positive momentum in the dialogue process between the two countries.
Border peace . . . .
“Our two leaders had in-depth exchange of views and reached important consensus on furthering the China-India relationship. We must work very hard to implement the consensus between our two leaders.
“India’s membership to the SCO has expanded the orgainsation’s potential and its influence, as well as providing a new platform for the India-China cooperation and I believe that India will make a positive and energetic contribution to the organisation,” Wang said.
Their meeting is part of efforts by the two countries to step up the pace of high-level interactions to improve relations, official sources here told PTI before the meeting.
Following the Dokalam standoff last year both countries increased dialogue to scale down tensions and improve relations with talks at various levels.
Swaraj and Wang are meeting in the immediate backdrop of the recent meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and top official of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Yang Jiechi in Shanghai.
India and China agreed on Sunday to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the Natha Lu route in the eastern Indian state of Sikkim, 10 months after the pilgrimage was stopped following the Doklam standoff.
The decision was made during India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing. “We are also happy that the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the Nathu la route will be resumed this year.
“I am confident that with Chinese side’s full cooperation, this year the yatra will be a fulfilling experience for the visiting Indian pilgrims,” Swaraj said during a joint press statement with Wang.
The yatra was stopped by China in the aftermath of the military face-off with India last year at Doklam.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will hold a summit meeting in China’s Wuhan city from April 27 to 28 to improve bilateral relations, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced here today.
Prime Minister Modi will be visiting the central Chinese city at the invitation of President Xi, Wang said at a joint media event with visiting External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after their talks.
Swaraj is in China for talks with Wang and to take part in the two-day meeting of Foreign Ministers of the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) from tomorrow.
Informed sources told PTI that it will be an informal summit meeting between Xi and Modi during which both leaders will try to work out a new paradigm for the bilateral ties bogged down with a host of disputes and differences.
This will be fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is again due to visit China to take part in the SCO summit to be held at Qingdao city on June 9-10.
The Modi-Xi summit meeting is taking place in the backdrop of series of high level interactions between both the two countries starting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang’s visit to India in December, the first after Dokalam standoff.
It was followed by two meetings between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi and the visit early this year by Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale to Beijing.
The two countries also held 11th Joint Economic Group meeting and the fifth Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) here recently.
Besides meetings between officials from the two foreign ministries on both sides held working mechanism meeting on border affairs and cross border rivers as well disarmament and non-proliferation dialogue in which India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) was discussed and culminated in today’s talks between Swaraj and Wang.
