S Jaishankar to Visit China from August 11-13

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to China on August 11 on a three-day visit ahead of the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in India in October.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), announcing the visit on Monday, said Jaishankar will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.

It will be Jaishankar’s first visit to China after becoming the external affairs minister.

The MEA said the two foreign ministers will also discuss upcoming high-level visits later this year.

In Beijing, Jaishankar will also co-chair the second meeting of the India-China High Level Mechanism (HLM) on cultural and people-to-people exchanges on August 12 with Wang.

The decision to establish the HLM was taken during the first informal summit between Modi and Xi in Wuhan in April 2018.

The inaugural HLM meeting was held on December 21 last year here.

“The second HLM meeting will provide an opportunity to follow up on the outcomes of the 1st HLM meeting and discuss new initiatives for enhancing people-to-people exchanges between our two countries,” the MEA said.

It said the HLM reflects the desire on both sides to build greater synergies in the people-to-people ties between the two countries through enhanced exchanges in areas such as tourism, art, films, media, culture and sports.

In the second informal summit, Modi and Xi are likely to focus on further broadening India-China ties.

The two leaders held their first informal summit in April last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan months after bilateral ties came under severe strain following a 73-day standoff between the armies of the two countries in Doklam.

Source: FE

Image Courtesy: Patrika