New Delhi: Amid continued military tensions at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar will hold bilateral talks with his new Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 meet here, ThePrint has learnt.
Addressing a media conference in the national capital Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra refused to get into specifics when asked if there will be a bilateral between the two leaders and said, “He (EAM) would definitely try and meet as many counterparts of his if possible, if not all”. India is scheduled to hold the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting Thursday.
However, government sources told ThePrint that a meeting is being planned between Jaishankar and Qin, who took over as Foreign Minister of China in December last year. The sources underlined that this meeting cannot be seen as a breakthrough moment for the military tensions between the two sides which started in May 2020.
The significance of the meeting is that this would be the first bilateral interaction between the two leaders.
“Qin Gang has so far spoken to foreign ministers of multiple countries, but failed to hold dialogue with the Indian side, despite expressing interest in having a dialogue about the border dispute in his article in National Interest (journal) which was published right before he became the foreign minister,” ThePrint columnist and China expert Aadil Brar said.
He added that Qin is quite familiar with the bilateral relationship as he has commented regularly on India-related matters while he was the foreign ministry spokesperson, “but I won’t call him a subject expert”.
“We are unlikely to witness any breakthrough on the ongoing border stand-off, but we can expect some discussions on the same” Brar said.
Sources in the diplomatic establishment also underplayed the meeting bringing the possibility of a breakthrough, adding that while the issue will be discussed, it is more of a formal meeting.
Brar said that besides the LAC issue, the discussion between the two sides will likely focus on India’s G20 presidency — including bargaining for Beijing’s support for the G20 leader’s declaration later this year — and Beijing’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Significant differences exist between the US and Chinese positions on the Ukraine war, which may overshadow the bilateral meeting, he said.
India took over as president of the G20 group of countries in December last year and will hold the presidency till November this year. The final G20 Summit under India’s presidency is scheduled to be held in September.
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India-China standoff
Earlier this month in Beijing, India and China had in discussed proposals for disengaging in remaining flashpoints in Eastern Ladakh during the first physical meeting of the Working Mechanisation for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China border Affairs since 2019.
While India and China have disengaged from the northern and southern banks of the Pangong Tso, Gogra and the Hot Springs area since the stand-off began in May 2020, the issues of de-escalation and of Depsang Plains and Demchok still remain.
Both sides have failed to make any headway with regard to Depsang and Demchok, which predates the current stand-off.
Also, while troops have disengaged, they continue to remain deployed in forward areas along with their armoured and artillery equipment.
As reported by ThePrint last December, while India is seeking to go back to pre-May 2020 status-quo, the Chinese are not playing ball and are looking at making the current dynamics as the new status quo.
Sources in defence said the Chinese are unlikely to go back to pre-May 2020 status quo given the amount of infrastructure they have built on their sides to set up new surface-to-air missiles sites, roads, bridges, heliports and hardened shelters and barracks.
Similarly, it will also be difficult for India to pull back because there is a huge trust deficit when it comes to China, the sources underlined.
They added that the Chinese are using the current deployment as an opportunity to get their soldiers into a real war scenario.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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