G20 Foreign Ministers' meet: Jaishankar holds bilateral talks with Chinese counterpart Qin Gang

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday held bilateral discussions with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang with a focus on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The discussions took place on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

The G20 meet comes days after G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors met in Bengaluru and failed to produce a joint communique, as China backed Russia against including paragraphs on the Russia Ukraine war.

This time around as well, experts do not expect the discussions to be any easier.

"Met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on sidelines of #G20FMM this afternoon. Our discussions were focused on addressing current challenges to the bilateral relationship, especially peace and tranquillity in the border areas," Jaishankar tweeted.

The talks came nearly eight months after Jaishankar met with then-Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Bali.

At the one-hour meeting on July 7, Jaishankar stressed the importance of resolving the outstanding concerns in eastern Ladakh as soon as possible.

The foreign minister had advised Wang that the two countries' relationship should be built on "three mutuals": mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and shared interests.

Wang had visited India in March last year.

On February 22, India and China held in-person diplomatic talks in Beijing and discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining friction points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh in an "open and constructive manner".

The meeting was held under the framework of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC).