External Affairs Minister firm on LAC status quo, now all eyes on meet with Yi
Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 8
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday made a surprise stopover in Tehran on the way to Moscow to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM).
In Moscow, the minister is expected to hold several bilateral meetings, including one with Chinese FM Wang Yi. It will be a follow-up of last week’s interaction between Defence Ministers Rajnath Singh and Wei Fenghe.
CCS meets, NSA Doval may hold talks too
- The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) met on Tuesday to take stock of the situation in Ladakh. There is a possibility of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Jaishankar’s meeting with Yi would be significant as he and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla have made it clear that diplomatic ties with China are predicated on the restoration of the status quo on the LAC. The Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is also slated to attend the SCO in Moscow but the chances of a meeting with Jaishankar are bleak.
The SCO CFM will review the preparations for a summit that could be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistan PM Imran Khan.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Deputy Chief of Mission Roman Babushkin said India did not require any advice on how to improve its ties with neighbours when asked whether Moscow would like to be the mediator. “I put a counter question to you. Would you (India) accept third-party mediation?’’ he told a journalist when asked this question.
As a friend of both China and India, Russia finds it “quite encouraging” that both countries are trying to find a mutually acceptable solution through dialogue. “So we would encourage this outcome (Sino-India talks on the sidelines of SCO or BRICS) which could provide a good impetus for de-escalation and disengagement,’’ he added.
In Tehran, after meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif in Tehran, Jaishankar said they discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation and reviewed regional developments. Rajnath Singh had also visited Tehran on his way back from Moscow and analysts view the hectic shuttle diplomacy by the duo as an effort to turn the page after a brief spell of acrimony in India-Iran ties.
