JOIN USChinese Foreign Minister gets a cold welcome in New Delhi, likely to meet EAM Jaishankar on Friday
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in New Delhi late in the evening on Thursday—a day after the Government of India reacted strongly to a comment he made in Islamabad to endorse the stand of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in support of the secessionist movement in Jammu and Kashmir.
With the soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army still engaged in a stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh, Wang received a rather cold welcome on his arrival in New Delhi. He flew in from Kabul after a meeting with Amir Khan Muttaqi, his counterpart in the regime the Taliban set up after returning to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi maintained silence on the Chinese Foreign Minister's visit to India—the first by any senior Chinese Government official after the stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) started in April-May 2020. Contrary to the usual practice, no official photograph of him being received by the officials of the Government of India at the airport was released by the MEA, which also did not issue the routine “media advisory” about his engagements in New Delhi.
A source in New Delhi, however, said that he would have a meeting with his counterpart External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday. He would also have a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Wang and Doval are the special representatives of the governments of India and China for negotiations to resolve the dispute over the boundary between the two nations. The negotiations, however, remained suspended since the stand-off started along the LAC and the violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020, resulted in the death of 20 Indian Army personnel and at least four Chinese PLA soldiers.
Though the Embassy of China in New Delhi has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has not yet been confirmed.
Wang on Wednesday attended a meeting of the OIC hosted by the Government of Pakistan. He made a remark endorsing the OIC's support for the movement for “right to self-determination” in Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi strongly reacted to his statement, with the MEA spokesperson underlining that matters related to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were entirely the internal affairs of India and China or any other countries had no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India.
India also reminded China that it refrained from “public judgement” of “internal issues” of other nations.
Wang's visit to New Delhi is apparently intended to restore some degree of normalcy in bilateral relations so that Beijing could invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China later this year to attend the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit to be hosted by the communist country's president Xi Jinping.
New Delhi, however, has been persistently maintaining that it could not be “business as usual” in India-China relations as long as the Chinese PLA would not withdraw front-line troops from the remaining face-off points along the LAC and start a discussion with India for de-escalation from border areas.
Protracted negotiations between India and China had resulted in deals for disengagement of troops from Galwan Valley in June 2020, from both banks of Pangong Tso in February 2021 and from Gogra Post in August 2021. The stand-off, however, could not be resolved in other places along the LAC. The 15th round of negotiations between the military commanders of the two nations earlier this month failed to yield the much-expected deal for mutual withdrawal of troops from Hot Springs or Patrol Point 15 in eastern Ladakh.
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