New Delhi: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who arrived in New Delhi from Kabul on Thursday, met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval at his office in the South Block. The two likely discussed the bilateral issues between China and India escalated after the Galwan Valley stand-off, as well as the situation in Ukraine, where India and China oddly find themselves on the same side.
Later in the day, Wang Yi will also meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar before noon. Wang is set to fly to Nepal after his meeting with Jaishankar. The two leaders are expected to talk about the border tension as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both consider Russia as a friendly nation and have rejected Western calls to condemn the aggression from Moscow, which it calls a special military operation.
The visit is happening at a time when troops of both countries are engaged in a tough border stand-off on the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for nearly two years now. This is the Chinese foreign minister’s first visit to India since the stand-off began in April-May 2020 and witnessed the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in June 2020 in the Galwan Valley.
Wang last visited India for the Special Representative talks on the boundary question with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in December 2019.
The two-day visit comes a day after the ministry of external affairs (MEA) hit out at him over his Kashmir remark at a meeting in Pakistan.
In a statement, the MEA rejected Yi's support for the Islamic world’s views on the Kashmir issue and said China had no locus standi to comment on the matter.
Wang made the comments while speaking at the opening ceremony of a meeting of the council of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hosted by Islamabad on Tuesday.
Neither side had announced the visit before Wang landed in New Delhi late on Thursday. Footage from ANI showed Wang Yi coming out of the commercial airport rather than the defence facility nearby where most foreign dignitaries land.
At present, tens of thousands of Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball standoff at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh. Senior military officers have held more than a dozen rounds of talks to defuse the standoff but progress has been limited.
