External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday discussed “outstanding issues” along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi along the sidelines of the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Jakarta.
Friday’s meet was Mr. Jaishankar’s third high-level engagement with the Chinese side in recent months, following bilateral talks during visits by Foreign Minister Qin Gang to India for the G-20 Foreign Ministers’ meet in March and for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering in May.
In both meetings with Mr. Qin, Mr. Jaishankar underlined the importance of peace on the LAC as a prerequisite for normalcy in the broader relationship, and called for China to take forward disengagement of troops in the two remaining friction points.
A third meeting between the two Foreign Ministers was expected in Jakarta, but Mr. Qin did not travel because of reported health reasons. Instead, his predecessor, Wang Yi, who was promoted last year to the Politburo and also heads the ruling Communist Party’s Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, attended the Jakarta meetings.
“Just concluded meeting with Director Wang Yi of the Office of the CPC Central Commission for Foreign Affairs,” Mr. Jaishankar said on Friday in a message on Twitter. “Discussed outstanding issues related to peace & tranquility in border areas. Our conversation also covered EAS/ARF [ASEAN Regional Forum] agenda, BRICS and the Indo-Pacific.”
Frank discussion
In May, Mr. Jaishankar said following his meeting with Mr. Qin that both sides had a “frank” discussion on the border, and India had made it clear that relations with China were not normal and could not be normal if peace in border areas was disturbed.
Mr. Qin responded by calling on both countries “to draw experience and lessons from history” and “steer bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said then. Mr. Qin also called on both sides “to consolidate existing outcomes, strictly abide by relevant agreements and protocols, work to ease and cool down the border situation, and maintain sustained peace and tranquility in the border areas.”
However, Indian officials say the Chinese military has continued to drag its feet in the slow-moving negotiations to restore peace and complete disengagement in all seven friction areas that have seen tensions following multiple Chinese transgressions in April and May 2020.
Both sides have disengaged in five areas, creating buffer zones in some of them, even as tens of thousands of troops still remain deployed in forward areas close to the LAC.
