New Delhi: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will pay a two-day visit to India beginning Monday to hold border talks with National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Saturday.
Wang’s visit comes days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned trip to China to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
The Chinese foreign minister is visiting India primarily to hold the next round of Special Representatives’ (SR) dialogue on the boundary question.
Wang and Doval are the designated special representatives for the boundary talks.
“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,” the MEA said in a statement.
“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.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will also hold bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart.
Doval travelled to China in December last year and held the SR talks with Wang, weeks after Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to revive various dialogue mechanisms between the two sides at a meeting in the Russian city of Kazan.
Modi is expected to travel to China later this month to attend the SCO summit.
According to the plan, the prime minister will embark on a visit to Japan around August 29 and after concluding the trip, will travel to the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for the summit to be held on August 31 and September 1.
Modi’s visit to China is being planned amid efforts by the two neighbouring countries to repair their bilateral ties, which came under severe strain following the deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan valley in June 2020.
The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020 and the Galwan valley clashes in June resulted in a severe strain in the bilateral ties.
The face-off effectively ended following the completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year.
The decision to revive various dialogue mechanisms was taken at a meeting between Modi and Xi in Kazan on October 23, 2024.
The Modi-Xi meeting came two days after India and China firmed up the disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok.
The two sides also initiated a number of initiatives to rebuild the ties, including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and New Delhi restarting the issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals.
Both sides are also discussing the modalities to resume direct flight services between the two countries.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Jaishankar visited China in the last two months to attend SCO meetings.
China is the current chair of the SCO.
