EAM S Jaishankar skips Tianjin meet, cites health issues

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was conspicuous by his absence during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin on Sunday.

Sources said Jaishankar had not joined Modi’s entourage to Japan and China, citing health issues.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is also India’s Special Representative for boundary negotiations with China, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, as well as other officials, accompanied the prime minister in the meeting with the Chinese president.

Jaishankar met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New Delhi on August 18. He stressed that the de-escalation process — withdrawal of additional troops deployed by both sides in the rear areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh – should move forward.

Doval met his counterpart Wang, China’s Special Representative for boundary negotiations with India, in New Delhi a day later and told him that the India-China border areas had been quiet in the past nine months.