Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Beijing, August 12: Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Monday met with Chinese vice president Wang Qishan and held discussions related to bolstering diplomatic and bilateral relations.

Jaishankar, who embarked on an official three-day visit to Beijing to co-chair the second conference of the China-India High-Level Mechanism (HLM) on people-to-people and cultural exchanges, said that for the stability in the region, New Delhi’s relationship with Beijing should be a factor.

Jaishankar’s China’s visit marked the first official visit by him to the nation after assuming the office in May this year following the Lok Sabha Election 2019.

Wang welcomed the EAM to the nation, while Jaishankar said he was happy that he visited in the communist country. He said, “I am really glad that early in my period I had an opportunity to visit China,” according to ANI news reports.

Jaishankar’s China visit comes in the midst of escalated tensions between India and Pakistan post scrapping of Article 370 and removing a special status for Jammu and Kashmir, following which the Pakistan government approved to downgrade the bilateral ties and diplomacy with India and further suspended the bilateral trade ties.

Ahead of EAM’s visit, Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had paid an official visit to Beijing in order to raise the Kashmir issue with his Chinese counterparts and seek support to move to the United Nations (UN) against India’s decision to scrapping Article 370.

In reference to Qureshi’s demand, Jaishankar, during his meeting with Wang, stated: “At a time the world is more uncertain, we believe our relationship should be a factor of stability in the region.”

Beijing had previously objected the Indian government’s decision to abrogate Article 370, in regarding which New Delhi had issued an official statement stating the action was an internal matter concerning Jammu and Kashmir of India.

The EAM’s visit to Beijing scheduled from August 11-13 will further prepare a ground for the 2nd formal summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 

 

 

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