NEW DELHI: China announced on Tuesday its foreign minister Qin Gang will visit India for the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa on May 4-5. This will be Qin’s second visit to India after his participation in the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting here in March.
Beijing said Qin will exchange views with other SCO member states’ foreign ministers on the “international and regional situation and SCO cooperation in various fields, among other topics, to make full preparation for this year’s SCO summit.” Russia and Pakistan foreign ministers had earlier confirmed their participation in the meeting of the Eurasian group.
Chinese President, along with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, is likely to visit India for the SCO summit that India will host on July 3-4. The summit will likely see on the margins the first bilateral meeting between Modi and Xi since the military standoff erupted in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.
India, which holds the presidency of the Eurasian group currently, is hosting a series of meetings leading up to the summit. China also participated in the SCO defence ministers’ meeting last week here.
Qin will look to discuss the agenda for Xi’s visit in his likely second bilateral with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. Jaishankar is likely to reinforce India’s point about the need for early completion of the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh, and for further de-escalation, that can help restore normalcy to ties. Jaishankar had told Qin in their last meeting that the relationship remained abnormal because of the dangerous border situation.
While there was no announcement by Beijing, reports in Pakistan media said he will travel to Islamabad from India for a trilateral with Afghanistan. This will be Qin’s first visit to Pakistan as China’s foreign minister. The government doesn’t usually encourage foreign dignitaries to club visit to India with a trip to Pakistan.
Beijing said Qin will exchange views with other SCO member states’ foreign ministers on the “international and regional situation and SCO cooperation in various fields, among other topics, to make full preparation for this year’s SCO summit.” Russia and Pakistan foreign ministers had earlier confirmed their participation in the meeting of the Eurasian group.
Chinese President, along with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, is likely to visit India for the SCO summit that India will host on July 3-4. The summit will likely see on the margins the first bilateral meeting between Modi and Xi since the military standoff erupted in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.
India, which holds the presidency of the Eurasian group currently, is hosting a series of meetings leading up to the summit. China also participated in the SCO defence ministers’ meeting last week here.
Qin will look to discuss the agenda for Xi’s visit in his likely second bilateral with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on the sidelines of the SCO meeting. Jaishankar is likely to reinforce India’s point about the need for early completion of the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh, and for further de-escalation, that can help restore normalcy to ties. Jaishankar had told Qin in their last meeting that the relationship remained abnormal because of the dangerous border situation.
While there was no announcement by Beijing, reports in Pakistan media said he will travel to Islamabad from India for a trilateral with Afghanistan. This will be Qin’s first visit to Pakistan as China’s foreign minister. The government doesn’t usually encourage foreign dignitaries to club visit to India with a trip to Pakistan.