In Second Meeting With Chinese FM Qin, Jaishankar Discusses India-China Border Stand-off

The ministers held talks for more than 70 minutes at the Taj Exotica in Goa, ahead of the start of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s ministerial meeting on May 4.

New Delhi: In their second meeting, the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers discussed the border stand-off, with India reiterating that the resolution of the remaining friction points was necessary for the normalisation of bilateral ties.

The ministers held talks for more than 70 minutes at the Taj Exotica in Goa, ahead of the start of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s ministerial meeting on Thursday, May 4.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar posted a tweet saying that he held a “detailed discussion” with the State Councillor and foreign minister Qin Gang. “Focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” he wrote.

Jaishankar added that they also discussed their stance on the multilateral foras that they share – SCO, G-20 and BRICS.

The Indian minister’s tweet indicated that the discussion was a reiteration of the respective position on the border stand-off.

For nearly three years, Indian and Chinese troops have been in a stand-off at multiple points in eastern Ladakh, which resulted in the first fatalities at the border in 40 years.

Several rounds of military and foreign office-level meetings resulted in disengagement at four points by creating buffer zones. But, the Chinese are reluctant to accept that the two remaining points of the stand-off at Demchok and Depsang are part of the current border crisis, which has resulted in a deadlock.

Since last September, Chinese officials have emphasised that the border crisis is essentially over and called for going towards “normalised” border management. This had been repeated by Qin Gang during his meeting with Jaishankar in March, as well as by Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu.

In a meeting last week between Li Shangfu and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh, the latter said that the border staff had “eroded” the foundation of their relationship.

The Indian foreign minister also held bilateral meetings with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Uzbek foreign minister Bakhtiyor Saidov and SCO secretary general Zhang Ming.

Jaishankar was meeting with Lavrov just a day after the Kremlin claimed that Ukraine was behind a drone attack to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the official readouts didn’t mention if it was discussed in this meeting.

The Russian foreign ministry said that there was a “trust-based exchange of views on the main issues of bilateral relations, including the schedule of upcoming contacts, as well as topical issues on the global and regional agenda took place”.

Jaishankar tweeted that he appreciated Russia’s support for India’s presidency, and also discussed issues pertaining to G20 and BRICS.

Till now, India has not publicly criticised Russia on the Ukraine war. Russia has also become India’s top oil supplier with Europe bringing down its purchases since the start of the invasion.

Lavrov also met with Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on the side-lines of the SCO meeting on Thursday evening.

The Pakistan foreign office tweeted that both of them committed to “work closely for further deepening cooperation in food security, energy & people to people contacts”. Pakistan also observed that the SCO “opens new vistas of cooperation and coordination with Russia”.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had been on a visit to Moscow when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, which embarrassed Islamabad on the optics. Once Khan was removed by a no-confidence vote of the parliament, Pakistan moved to rebalance its foreign policy and tried to get closer to the US, especially since Washington has valuable leverage over the negotiations for loans from the International Monetary Fund.

Pakistan has, like India, not publicly criticised Russia and abstained on UN resolutions castigating Moscow over the Ukraine war.

As the economic crisis endangered its food security, Pakistan’s import of wheat from Russia surged eightfold last year, displacing Ukraine as the primary supplier. At the same time, the skyrocketing oil prices meant that Pakistan was also courting discounted Russian crude in order to ameliorate its foreign exchange crisis. Reuters reported that the first cargo of discounted Russian oil is set to dock in Pakistan this month.

The Russian foreign minister also had a separate meeting with the Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang in Goa.

As per the Russian foreign ministry, the two ministers reiterated their opposition to the “increased activity of extra-regional players to create various narrow-bloc formats that undermine the ASEAN-centric system of security and stability in the Asia-Pacific region”.

It was a reiteration of Russia and China’s long-standing criticism of the West’s Indo-Pacific policy and the aims of the Quad group of countries, which includes India.

“The ministers highly appreciated the dynamics of the development of Russian-Chinese relations against the backdrop of growing geopolitical instability,” noted the Russian foreign ministry press note.