‘Looking forward to meet Prez Xi on margins of SCO’
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday underlined the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity along the frontier with China and reiterated India’s commitment to a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution to the boundary question as he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Modi said stable, predictable and constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and that he was looking forward to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Chinese city of Tianjin.
Wang, who landed in Delhi on Monday on a two-day visit, handed over a message and an invitation to the SCO summit from President Xi to Prime Minister Modi.
The signal of a renewed momentum in India-China relations came amid strain in ties between New Delhi and Washington over President Donald Trump’s policy on tariffs.
In a social media post following his meeting with the Chinese foreign minister, Modi said India-China relations have made steady progress, guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities, since his talks with President Xi around 10 months back.
Two days after India and China agreed to end the eastern Ladakh face-off, Modi and Xi met in the Russian city of Kazan in October last and agreed to revive several mechanisms to normalise bilateral relations and address the border dispute.
Wang’s visit is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.
“Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities,” Modi said on ‘X’.
“I look forward to our next meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said Modi emphasised the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity on the border, and reiterated India’s commitment to a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” resolution of the boundary question.
“The prime minister welcomed the steady and positive progress in bilateral ties since his meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, guided by mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity, including the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra,” it said in a statement.
Modi thanked Xi for the invitation to the SCO summit and conveyed his acceptance.
The prime minister expressed support for China’s Presidency of the SCO Summit and said that he looked forward to meeting President Xi in Tianjin, the PMO said.
It said Wang shared his “positive assessment” of the bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar as well as his talks with NSA Ajit Doval.
While Wang and Jaishankar held extensive talks on Monday, the Chinese foreign minister’s meeting with Doval under the framework of Special Representative dialogue on the boundary question took place on Tuesday.
In the SR talks, both sides deliberated on maintaining peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Though the two sides disengaged troops from the friction points, they are yet to de-escalate the situation by pulling back the frontline forces from the border. Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the eastern Ladakh region.
The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020 and the clashes at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in bilateral ties.
The face-off effectively ended following completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year.
In the last few months, the two sides also initiated a number of initiatives to rebuild the ties that included the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and New Delhi restarting the issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals.
