Chinese FM Wang Yi to visit India next week for border talks with NSA Doval

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit India on Monday to hold talks with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval under the mechanism of Special Representatives on the border issue, authoritative sources said.

 

Wang is travelling to India days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned trip to the Chinese city of Tianjin to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

 

The Chinese foreign minister is visiting India primarily to hold the next round of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary question, the sources said on Wednesday.

 

Wang and Doval are the designated SR for talks on the boundary issue.

 

Doval travelled to China in December last and held the SR talks with Wang, weeks after Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to revive various dialogue mechanisms between the two sides at a meeting in the Russian city of Kazan.

 

In the last few months, India and China have initiated a number of measures to repair the bilateral ties that had severely nosedived following the deadly clashes between the two militaries in June 2020.

 

Modi is expected to travel to China later this month to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. 

 

Last month, India announced the resumption of issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals.

 

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 ties between India and China.

 

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.

 

After a gap of over seven years, Modi is expected to travel to China. As per the plan, the prime minister will embark on a visit to Japan around August 29, and after concluding the trip, he will travel to Tianjin for the SCO summit to be held on August 31 and September 1.

 

There is no official confirmation yet on Modi's two-nation visit to Japan and China.

 

Modi last visited China in June, 2018 to attend the SCO summit. President Xi visited India in October 2019 for the second "informal summit".