Jaishankar visits China for SCO meet amid improved ties

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visits China for the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting, marking his first visit since 2020's Galwan clash. India continues diplomatic engagement post-Modi-Xi bilateral breakthrough.

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will embark on a three-day visit to China starting Sunday to attend the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states being held in Tianjin.

While the External Affairs Minister has met his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of multilateral events, this will be his first trip to China since bilateral relations were severely strained following the violent Galwan Valley face-off between soldiers of the two countries at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in June 2020.

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The breakthrough came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a significant bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping — the first at the delegation level in nearly five years — in the Russian city of Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in October 2023.

At the meeting, PM Modi conveyed to the Chinese President that India-China ties must be based on three key mutuals — mutual trust, mutual respect, and mutual sensitivity — if they are to return to a positive trajectory and remain sustainable.

Since then, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri have visited Beijing to hold in-depth discussions on several complex issues.

Addressing the 20th meeting of the Security Council Secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states in Beijing last month, NSA Doval said that India is deeply concerned about the continued threat from terror groups designated by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) — two of the most dangerous and state-supported terror outfits operating out of Pakistan — besides Al Qaeda, ISIS, and its affiliates.

Spotlighting the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack and India’s subsequent Operation Sindoor to dismantle terror infrastructure across the border, the National Security Advisor called for the urgent need to shun double standards in the fight against terrorism and take decisive actions against UN-proscribed terrorists and entities.

During his visit, NSA Doval also met with Wang Yi, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“During the meeting, both sides reviewed recent developments in India-China bilateral relations and underscored the need to promote the overall development of India-China bilateral relations, including by fostering greater people-to-people ties,” read a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Almost around the same time, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao. The two ministers held in-depth discussions on the need to maintain peace along the India-China border.