Jaishankar-Qin Meeting: Jaishankar met Chinese Foreign Minister, discussed many issues including border dispute

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that in his first meeting with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, talks focused on resolving current challenges to bilateral relations, especially peace and tranquility in the border areas. It was discussed on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' meeting amid the ongoing border dispute in eastern Ladakh for more than 34 months.

This was the Chinese Foreign Minister's first meeting with S Jaishankar as he takes over as the Chinese Foreign Minister in December, 2022. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin arrived in Delhi on Thursday morning to attend the G-20 meeting hosted by India.

Jaishankar's meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister S Jaishankar tweeted, 'Meeted with Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on the sidelines of G-20 Foreign Ministers. We discussed the challenges facing the bilateral partnership and maintaining peace on the India-China border. He said, 'We also talked about the G-20 agenda.

India says that until peace is established in the border areas, its relations with China cannot be normal. The talks took place nearly eight months after Jaishankar held a meeting with the then Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 meeting. Earlier, in an hour-long meeting on July 7 last year, Jaishankar conveyed to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang the need for early resolution of all pending issues in eastern Ladakh. The foreign minister told Wang that relations between the two countries should be based on mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests. Wang had visited India in March last year.