India sees ‘notable’ progress in China ties as EAM meets Wang

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday pointed to “notable developments” in the India-China relationship since November last year as he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Protected G20 in polarised world

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In a polarised global situation, our two countries have worked hard to protect G20 as an institution. This testifies to the importance of international cooperation. S Jaishankar, EAM

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, while answering a query here, said Jaishankar and Wang Yi reviewed multiple issues, including management of peace and tranquillity in the border areas, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, cross-border rivers and trade facilitation. The meeting lasted 30 minutes.

Jaishankar’s remarks were put out by the MEA on its website. The minister told Wang Yi “since our last meeting in Rio (Brazil) during the G20 Summit in November 2024, there have been some notable developments. Our National Security Adviser (NSA) and Foreign Secretary have (separately) visited China and there have been discussions about various aspects of our relationship”.

Jaishankar was referring to NSA Ajit Doval’s visit to Beijing. Doval as Special Representative (SR) on the “India-China boundary question” had met Wang Yi and discussed border issues. Jaishankar today mentioned “management of peace and tranquillity in the border areas” as central to the discussions. Last December, the two leaders had agreed to “inject vitality” into the process of settling the long-pending boundary dispute and agreed on maintaining “peace and tranquillity” in the border areas to promote bilateral relations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to the resumption of SR-level talks at a meeting on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit at Kazan, Russia, in October.

The Special Representatives have been tasked with meeting “at an early date to oversee the management of peace and tranquillity in border areas and to explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question”.

Today, Jaishankar said in a polarised global situation, the two countries had worked hard to preserve and protect the G20 as an institution. “This in itself testifies to the importance of international cooperation,” he said.

Last night, Jaishankar met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Foreign Ministers’ meeting. “They discussed all aspects of the India-Russia bilateral ties, as also the recent developments pertaining to the Ukraine conflict, including what transpired, or including the developments that happened in his Riyadh meeting (with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio),” Jaiswal said.