Chinese Foreign Minister in India: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit India on August 18 and 19 for two days. The Ministry of External Affairs said the visit comes on the invitation of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. Ajit Doval and Wang Yi are the official special representatives for the boundary dialogue.
The ministry explained, “At the invitation of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit India on August 18 and 19.”
“During his visit, he will hold the 24th round of the Special Representatives’ (SR) talks on the India-China boundary question with India’s SR, NSA Doval,” it added.
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During his stay in Delhi, Wang Yi will meet Doval to talk about the long-standing border problems. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will also sit down with Wang Yi for bilateral talks.
This visit is seen as an important step because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to go to China later in the month to attend the annual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. Modi is likely to first travel to Japan on August 29 and from there fly to Tianjin in northern China for the summit that takes place on August 31 and September 1.
Relations between India and China
India and China dropped to very low levels after the clashes in the Galwan valley in June 2020. The military standoff in eastern Ladakh had started in May 2020 and created major tension. The clash in Galwan caused a huge strain in ties and both countries struggled to find a way forward. The situation slowly eased after both sides agreed on October 21 last year to disengage from the last two friction points at Demchok and Depsang.
Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping met in the Russian city of Kazan on October 23, 2024, just two days after the disengagement deal was finalised. At that meeting, both leaders decided to restart several dialogue channels that had been stopped during the standoff. After that, Ajit Doval travelled to China in December 2024 and held boundary talks with Wang Yi.
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Rebuilding the relationship
India and China began some measures to slowly rebuild their relationship after years of tension. The two sides reopened the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, and India started issuing tourist visas to Chinese visitors again.
In the last two months, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar have travelled to China for meetings linked to the SCO. China currently holds the chair of the SCO, which explains the number of high-level visits happening. On July 14 this year, Jaishankar also met Wang Yi in Beijing, showing that the communication lines between the two countries are active again.
