While their armies face off in the frigid Himalayan heights, there aresudden and furtive signs of a possible thaw in relations between India andChina, the two giant Asian neighbors armed with nuclear weapons.
In a visit shrouded in secrecy, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi flew toIndia and met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar forthree-hour-long talks on Friday.
It was the highest-level visit between the two countries since clashes ontheir Himalayan border in 2020 led to the deaths of 20 Indian and at leastfour Chinese soldiers. Tens of thousands of soldiers, manning tanks andfighter jets, remain amassed at either side of the border. Several roundsof de-escalation talks between military commanders have not yieldedbreakthroughs in some key areas of the conflict.
During the strikingly long talks between the ministers, India put the ballfirmly in China’s court. In remarks to the media after the talks,Jaishankar said the border had to be completely demilitarized for normalrelations with Beijing to resume.
“Bilateral relations have been disturbed as a result of Chinese actions inApril 2020,” he said, referring to the start of the border tensions. “I washonest in conveying our sentiment on this issue during talks with Wang Yi,”he said, adding that normal ties would be restored only after the borderswere tranquil.
Wang, who has so far not addressed the media or issued a statement afterthe talks, also met India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Heinvited Doval to Beijing, in a sign that Beijing may be more willing toconsider the complete demilitarization of the Ladakh border. India saysBeijing has been stalling the demilitarization talks while buildingmilitary infrastructure in territory under its control.
The state-run Chinese media, which reflects the views of the ChineseCommunist Party, has of late been trying to seek common ground with Indiaafter the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both countries are facing increasinginternational scrutiny for their stands on the month-old war in Ukraine.
On Thursday, EU leaders told China to use its leverage over Russia to bringthe war to an end. The West has been more understanding of the positiontaken by New Delhi which is dependent on Russia for its arms supplies.
Both governments had remained mum on the agenda and expectations from thevisit. Neither government made any formal announcements ahead of time andWang landed quietly in New Delhi’s commercial airport on a flight fromAfghanistan on Thursday night. The news of his arrival came from the Indianand Chinese media.
China, which declared a “no-limits” partnership with Russia just before thestart of the war in Ukraine, appears to be keen to find common ground withIndia, which has also abstained from UN resolutions condemning Russia’sinvasion of its neighbor.
Read Top Stories
As the host of the annual BRICS summit later this year, China is alsobelieved to be seeking India’s presence at the forum which would put India,China and Russia at the same table.
Former Indian foreign secretary Shashank attributed the secrecy surroundingthe visit to Wang’s difficulty in securing meetings with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and other top Indian officials before the visit.
“India was perhaps not willing to offer a meeting with the prime ministerbecause it needs a strong enough proposal to be offered for the meeting tobe scheduled,” he told CNBC.
Chinese media linked the visit to the similarity in Indian and Chinesepositions on the Ukraine war. “China and India share similar stances on theUkraine crisis and an exchange of views between the two countries willserve as a stabilizer to the region despite some external country’s effortsto stir up trouble,” the Chinese newspaper Global Times quoted an expert assaying in an article reporting the visit.
“The US has been pressuring India to drop the latter’s defense and oil tieswith Russia,” the paper said, adding that Wang’s visit was “shuttlediplomacy,” showing China’s “important role” in mediating between regionalparties on issues of common interests.Wang ruffled feathers in India when he supported a call for Kashmir’s“right to self determination” at a conference of the Organization ofIslamic Countries in Pakistan on Tuesday. Both India and Pakistan governparts of the disputed territory while claiming all of it. Wang’s commentswere condemned by New Delhi and also contributed to the tentativenesssurrounding the visit.
Still, Beijing has been signaling an outreach to New Delhi for the past fewweeks. At a media briefing on the sidelines of the fifth session of the13th National People’s Congress in Beijing, Wang said worsening China-Indiaties did not serve the “fundamental interests” of the two countries. Healso reiterated the traditional Chinese position that mutual differences ontheir contested border be delinked from other bilateral issues.
India and China last held a military dialogue on March 11, their 15thround, to further de-escalate tensions on the border.
SOURCE=: CNBClink
