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Friday, March 29, 2024

Why Chinese Foreign Minister got a cold welcome in New Delhi?

New Delhi, Mar 24 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening for the first high-level trip between India and China after their relations became strained following a border dispute east of Ladakh nearly two years ago.

Wang flew to New Delhi from Kabul for an unannounced visit and will hold talks with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday morning.

It has been reported that the visit of the Chinese foreign minister is more closely related to the country’s turmoil after the Russian invasion of Ukraine than to bilateral relations.

Interestingly, there was no official word about Wang’s visit from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Chinese government. Both sides kept the visit private.

Why this Cold Welcome?

Several factors have contributed to sour the Chinese FM visit to India. One of them seems the Wang Yi’s recent statement during his Pakistan visit where he states “China supports core interests of Pakistan”, here their core interests is speculated to include the Kashmir issue which is constantly raised by Pakistan on international stages.

India in its official statement completely rejected Wang Yi’s statement and warned not to indulge in Internal matters of India.

In Friday’s talks, the Indian side is unlikely to remove any military focus east of Ladakh as it is expected to push for the withdrawal of troops from all remaining areas of the region.

The border issue is likely to be a major issue in the meeting between Wang and Doval as they have served as Special Representatives (SR) for border negotiations between the two countries.

The Ukraine crisis is expected to be another major problem in negotiations. Unlike many other leading powers, India has not yet criticized Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and withheld voting at UN forums to condemn Russia’s invasion.

It was not immediately clear whether the Indian side would conduct Wang’s call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The visit also comes a day after India’s refusal to accept Wang’s comments against Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad.

China has close ties with Russia and has been giving indications of its willingness to help Moscow deal with the deteriorating economic sanctions announced by the US and other Western countries following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine launched last month.

Wang embarked on a two-day trip to Pakistan on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Affairs of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) as a special guest.

After concluding his trip to Islamabad, he traveled to Afghanistan and held extensive talks with Afghan leaders in Kabul on Thursday. China’s foreign minister is also scheduled to visit Kathmandu from March 25 to 27.

It was China who had sent a proposal to India to visit New Delhi by Wang as part of his regional tour. Initially, India learned to be reluctant to accept this proposal.

Demonstrating India’s unwavering stance on relations with China, Prime Minister Modi on Monday told his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison at a conference apparently that peace and tranquility east of Ladakh is a key requirement for normalizing India-China relations.

At the 14th India-Japan Summit on Saturday, New Delhi conveyed to Tokyo the same line that its relations with Beijing would not be business as usual until peace was restored in the eastern region of Ladakh.

India and China have held a series of military and military talks over the past one and a half years to resolve the east line of Ladakh.

Jaishankar and Wang held several talks in Moscow and Dushanbe to ease tensions east of Ladakh at the time.

In September 2020, Jaishankar and Wang held extensive talks in Moscow on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) conference where they reached a five-point agreement to resolve the Ladakh dispute.

The agreement included measures such as the immediate withdrawal of troops, the avoidance of actions that could escalate tensions, adherence to all border control agreements and procedures, and measures to restore order in line with the Real Government (LAC).

The two foreign ministers held a bilateral meeting next to another SCO summit in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in July last year where the focus was on the border. They met again in Dushanbe in September.

India has always maintained that peace and tranquility near the LAC was essential to the full development of bilateral relations.

Earlier this month, Wang said other forces had been seeking to end China-India tensions, referring to the US.

On March 11, India and China hosted the 15th round of high-level military talks to resolve pending issues in the eastern region of Ladakh.

A border dispute between Indian and Chinese troops erupted on May 5, 2020, following violent clashes in Lake Pangong areas.

The face is tense after the Galwan Valley conflict on June 15, 2020. 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers were killed in the conflict.

Both sides gradually improved their deployments by rushing tens of thousands of troops and heavy artillery.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic negotiations, the two sides completed a ceasefire last year north of the southern shore of Lake Pangong and the Gogra region. Each side currently has approximately 50,000 to 60,000 troops near the LAC in the critical sector.

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