New Delhi: The continuing stand-off at the border was on the agenda when Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar on Friday, July 14, met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Jakarta, with the Chinese side raising concerns over restrictions on Chinese firms by Indian authorities.
The Indian minister had already met with his new counterpart, Qin Gang, who took over from Wang Yi, on the sidelines of two meetings of the G-20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in India this year.
Jaishankar, who is in Jakarta to attend the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum, met with Wang Yi, who is currently the director of the Office of the CPC Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, on Friday. Wang is effectively the foreign policy chief of the CPC, which ranks him above Qin Gang.
In a tweet, the Indian minister said that the discussion was around “outstanding issues related to peace & tranquility in border areas”.
“Our conversation also covered EAS/ARF agenda, BRICS and the Indo-Pacific,” posted Jaishankar.
Just concluded meeting with Director Wang Yi of the Office of the CPC Central Commission for Foreign Affairs.
Discussed outstanding issues related to peace & tranquility in border areas.
Our conversation also covered EAS/ARF agenda, BRICS and the Indo-Pacific. pic.twitter.com/83VejZxUdX
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) July 14, 2023
While Jaishankar tweeted, a readout was issued by the Chinese foreign ministry.
As per the Chinese statement on the talks, Wan Yi reiterated that India will meet “China halfway and find a solution to the border issue that is acceptable to both sides”. It also said that the next round of military commander-level talks will be held as early as possible.
Wang also noted that China “is highly concerned about India’s recent restrictive measures against Chinese companies, and hopes that India will provide Chinese companies with a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment”.
Since 2020, India has tightened scrutiny of investments from neighbouring countries, especially China. This has led to a lot of uncertainty about Chinese firms, especially mobile phone companies that dominated the market. As per Reuters, these controls forced China’s Great Wall Motor to shelve a plan to invest $1 billion in the Indian market and pushed Chinese state-owned automaker SAIC’s MG Motor unit to look for a local partner.
The news agency had also reported on Friday, July 14, that China’s BYD Co has submitted a $1 billion investment proposal to build electric vehicles and batteries in India in partnership with a local company.
As per the readout, Wang Yi conveyed that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had “reached an important consensus on stabilizing China-India relations”.
“The two sides should take actions to this end, adhere to the correct direction of bilateral relations, grasp the general trend of world development, and promote the stabilization and improvement of China-India relations”.
Stating that the two countries are “eternal neighbours”, the Chinese readout said that the two sides “should support and achieve each other, rather than consume and suspect each other”.
“We must focus our energy and resources on our own development, improvement of people’s livelihood and accelerated revitalization, and not let specific issues define the overall relationship,” it added.
China had announced that Wang Yi will represent China at the meetings in Jakarta instead of foreign minister Qin Gang who is apparently indisposed due to “health reasons”. Qin was last seen in public on June 25 in Beijing after meeting foreign officials from Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Russia.
Relations between India and China are largely frozen due to lingering tensions at the border due to stand-off in eastern Ladakh since May 2020. While de-escalation has taken place in at least four friction points, two more remaining points remain unresolved. China has repeatedly called for normalisation of ties claiming that the two remaining points are part of the larger legacy of boundary dispute, but India disagrees.
The Chinese foreign ministry claimed that Jaishankar said that India was “willing” to put back India-China relations “on track” and create “favourable conditions for high-level exchanges in the next stage”.
Incidentally, Chinese President Xi has been invited for the G-20 summit later this year.
The readout also said that India had agreed to China’s proposal to “start the BRICS expansion process and reached a consensus in principle on this”.
Last month, Jaishankar had said that the BRICS expansion issue was “still a work in progress”, with India having an open mind.
“There are many aspects to it. One part of it is to consolidate how the existing BRICS members are working with each other. The second part of it is how the BRICS engages non-BRICS countries. And the third part is how we look at possible BRICS expansion — what will be the appropriate format for that is also something we need to work on,” Jaishankar said in Cape Town in June.