Beijing: Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in his meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Jakarta has said that both countries should find a mutually acceptable solution to the border problem without letting “specific issues” define the overall relationship.
India has been locked in a military standoff with China at eastern Ladakh for more than three years, with Jaishankar saying it to be the most complex challenge in his long diplomatic career.
Jaishankar has also made it very clear to China that until there is peace and tranquillity in border areas, the relationship between the two countries cannot progress.
Wang and Jaishankar met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Ministerial Meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday. Wang, a former Chinese foreign minister, attended the ASEAN meetings in Jakarta as the incumbent foreign minister Qin Gang is unwell.
During the meeting, Wang said that he hopes that the Indian side will meet China halfway and find a solution to the border issue that is acceptable to both sides, an official statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry here on Saturday quoted him as saying at the meeting with Jaishankar.
“We should focus our energy and resources on each other’s development, improving people’s livelihood and accelerating revitalisation without letting specific issues define the overall relationship”, the statement quoted Wang, Director of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Foreign Affairs as saying.
On his meeting with Wang, Jaishankar said on Twitter that he discussed outstanding issues related to peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
Our conversation also covered the East Asia Summit/ARF agenda, BRICS and the Indo-Pacific, he tweeted on Friday.
Wang also said that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have reached an important consensus on stabilising China-India relations.
“The two sides should take actions to this end, adhere to the correct direction of bilateral relations, grasp the general trend of world development, and promote the stabilisation and improvement of China-India relations,” he said.
As the world’s top two developing countries and eternal neighbours, China and India’s common interests obviously outweigh their differences and the realisation of their common development and common prosperity is of global significance, Wang said.
The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over-three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.
The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.
