NEW DELHI: The recent thaw in Sino-Indian ties was on display again as foreign minister S Jaishankar met his counterpart Wang Yi and talked up cooperation between the 2 countries on regional and multilateral forums like G20, SCO and BRICS, while stressing the importance of restoring mutual trust in bilateral ties and jointly maintaining border peace.
Jaishankar spoke about “notable developments” since their last meeting in Rio in November, but China went a step further in its readout and said exchanges at all levels have been restored between the 2 countries.
Jaishankar and Wang met on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Johannesburg. Even as the US Secretary of State, Marcio Rubio, skipped the event, Jaishankar backed South Africa’s presidency at the event saying its priorities sit well with India’s own G20 focus.
Jaishankar told Wang in his opening remarks in a formal bilateral meeting that in a polarized global situation, India and China have worked hard to preserve and protect the G20 as an institution. “This in itself testifies to the importance of international cooperation,’’ said the minister, adding platforms like G20 provided an opportunity for interaction between India and China even when ties were going through a difficult phase.
This was the latest in a series of high-level engagements between India and China, including visits to Beijing by NSA Ajit Doval and foreign secretary Vikram Misri, since the October 21 agreement last year to complete the military disengagement process in eastern Ladakh and the meeting between PM Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping 2 days later in Kazan.
Significantly, China said in its readout that exchanges at all levels between the two countries have been restored in an “orderly manner, and the Special Representatives on the border issue have reached a consensus on properly handling specific differences. “It is in line with the common expectations of the two peoples for China and India to restore mutual trust and achieve win-win cooperation,” said Beijing.
Apart from maintenance of peace and tranquillity along the border, issues like resumption of Kailash Mansarovar yatra, direct air services, trans-border river cooperation and travel facilitation were discussed. During Misri’s visit, India and China had agreed to resume the pilgrimage and direct flights between the 2 countries.
Underlining India and China’s membership of G20, SCO and BRICS, Jaishankar also said that there are also “regional and global issues of mutual interest, where an exchange of perspectives will be to our mutual benefit”. Jaishankar is expected to visit China for a meeting of the SCO foreign ministers later this year, which will be followed by the summit that Beijing expects Modi to attend.
The Chinese readout quoted Jaishankar as saying that India is willing to speed up the restoration of cooperation mechanisms with China, enhance cultural exchanges, facilitation of personnel exchanges, and joint maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
“Since our last meeting in Rio during the G20 Summit in November 2024, there have been some notable developments. Our NSA and Foreign Secretary have visited China and there have been discussions about various aspects of our relationship,’’ said Jaishankar, in his opening remarks before the meeting.
“These have included management of peace and tranquility in the border areas as well as other dimensions of our ties. I am glad today to have a further exchange of views,’’ he added.