New Delhi, Jan 24 (UNI) All issues of mutual interest will be discussed during Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s China visit from January 26-27, the MEA said on Friday even as Beijing welcomed the upcoming visit for the meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between the two sides.
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, said at a briefing: “Foreign Secretary will be meeting his counterpart, the Vice Minister in China, where all issues of bilateral interest will be discussed.
“This meeting flows from the understanding that the leaders reached in Kazan and subsequent to that we’ve had meetings of the special representatives and we’ve had foreign minister level meeting as well. So, once the discussions and talks happen you will get a readout of what issues were discussed. But all issues of mutual interest will be discussed.”
Meanwhile, in Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, said on FS Misri’s visit:
“Last October, President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached important common understandings on improving and growing bilateral relations when they met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan. Recently, both sides have acted to earnestly implement these common understandings. Chinese and Indian foreign ministers and defense ministers met with each other on multilateral occasions.
“The 23rd meeting between the Special Representatives of China and India on the boundary question was concluded with positive outcomes. Both sides agreed to improve and strengthen interactions, resume institutional dialogues as well as exchanges and cooperation in various fields and work to bring the China-India relations back on the track of sound and steady growth at an early date.
“We welcome Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri’s travel to China for the meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between China and India. We will release relevant information in due course.”
The visit of FS Misri to China comes more than a month after the December 18 meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for the India, China Special Representatives meeting during which they discussed a range of issues, including management of peace and tranquillity along the LAC.
On October 23 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, endorsed the agreement reached between the two sides on patrolling and disengagement along the Line of Actual Control.
Following the October 21 agreement, the two countries completed troop disengagement at the two friction points at Demchok and Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh.
In November External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and noted that the implementation of the October 21 agreement between both nations on disengagement at the LAC has proceeded as planned.
Speaking at an event in November, EAM said: “After this there is the de-escalation, which means the massing of troops along the LAC and all the associated developments along with that. Linked with that are the other aspects of the relationship.”
“Where will the disengagement lead us? It’s a reasonable supposition that there will be some improvement in the ties, but the current situation necessarily doesn’t warrant that at this time,” the EAM had said.
The FS’ visit also comes amid reports that China is to build the world’s largest dam on the eastern rim of the Tibetan plateau, located in the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo (Tsangpo) or Brahmaputra river, at a cost of $137 billion.
The MEA said in a statement that “the resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains”.