PM spells out India’s position on China
I n a recent interview to Newsweek, the Prime Minister, discussing Indo-China relations, commented, “For India, the relationship with China is important and significant.
The 15th Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers’ meeting, in New Delhi on Monday, is expected to take a tough position on the issue of terrorism despite perceptible differences between New Delhi and Beijing.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will host her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the trilateral meeting, which is being considered significant against the backdrop of the tense military stand-off between India and China at Doklam earlier this year.
Sources said the three foreign ministers would issue a joint communiqué at the end of their day-long deliberations, enlisting steps their countries propose to take for combating terrorism and enhancing cooperation at regional, global forums.
Advertisement
Officials of the three countries were giving last minute touches to the joint communiqué, which would be vetted by the foreign ministers before it is formally issued.
Wang’s visit is the first to India after Xi Jinping was endorsed for a second term as President of China by the 19th People’s Party Congress in Beijing in October.
Both the Chinese and the Russian foreign ministers will also hold bilateral talks with Swaraj on the margins of the RIC meeting.
New Delhi was to host the Russia-India-China meet in April, but China did not confirm Wang’s attendance apparently to convey to New Delhi its displeasure over Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh.
China stakes claim over almost all of the North-eastern Indian state and calls it South Tibet.
The RIC meeting is expected to be followed by India-China Special Representatives’ (SRs) talks on the boundary dispute to be held towards the end of this month.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval is the SR on the Indian side, while Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi is his country’s SR.
Advertisement
