 "China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in India today for a three-day visit. File image/AP")
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday said that the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Russia’s Kazan last year gave ‘impetus’ for the settlement of the boundary question.
“I am very pleased to meet you again in New Delhi for this round of talks between the special representatives of China and India on the boundary question. The setbacks we experienced in the past few years were not in the interests of the people of our two countries,” Yi said as he met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi.
He added, “And then in October last year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi had an important meeting in Kazan. That meeting pointed the direction for the development of our bilateral relations and provided impetus for the proper settlement of the boundary question.”
Yi is on a three-day visit to India and has met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Relations between the two Asian giants have been thawing since an agreement last October on patrolling their Himalayan border, easing a five-year standoff that had hurt trade, investment and air travel.
Yi and Doval held an extensive meeting on settling specific issues along the border to advance the Indo-China relationship further. “I am ready to work with you to build more consensus and identify the direction, the specific goals of the next round of boundary consultations going forward and create more conditions for the improvement and further growth of our bilateral relations,” he said.
PM Modi to visit China
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to China to attend the upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Doval said.
In his televised opening remarks at a new edition of the Special Representatives’ Dialogue on boundary question, Doval also highlighted the “new energy and momentum” in India-China ties as well as peace along the border.
There has been peace and tranquillity along the border, Doval said, adding “the bilateral engagements between the two countries have been ‘more substantial’ now.
Our prime minister will be visiting China for the SCO summit and therefore, today’s talks assume very special importance, he added.
It is the first official confirmation of Modi’s travel to the Chinese city of Tianjin to attend the summit on August 31 and September 1.
With inputs from agencies