Chinese Foreign Minister visits India amid recent standoff in Ladakh

Yesterday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended bilateral talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Wang arrived in New Delhi Thursday night after visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Wang discussed the recent Indo-China skirmish in Ladakh which led to the death of twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers and showed interest to conciliate the strained relations between the two countries.

Jaishankar said that the border needs to be completely demilitarised for normal relations with China. He added that, "the frictions and tensions that arise from China's deployments since April 2020 cannot be reconciled with a normal relationship between the two neighbours."

Doval called for a de-escalation at the border. Several talks in the past on the level of military commanders at the border have not resulted in any solution. Both the countries have thousands of troops and warfare equipment amassed at the borders.

The ministers also talked about the current situation in Ukraine. Both the countries called for an immediate ceasefire. Both India and China have close bilateral ties with Russia and have not yet condemned its invasion of Ukraine.

Wang arrived in India in secrecy without any notification from either of the governments to the public. Wang left India for Nepal late Friday following an initiative by China to strengthen relations with South Asian countries.

Previously, India criticised the comments made by Wang Yi about the disputed territory of Kashmir at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Summit held in Pakistan.