- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The foreign ministry of China on Tuesday (28) confirmed that the country’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, will pay a visit to India for the upcoming two-day G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi starting Wednesday (1).
The visit will be Qin’s maiden visit to India as the foreign minister. His predecessor Wang Yi, who is now the head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission, last visited India in March last year. Qin took over from him in December last year.
Relations between India and China have been frozen after their troops clashed in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh in 2020 after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was accused of altering the status quo.
The two neighbours have held 17 high-level military commanders’ talks to settle the border issue since then.
Last December, the two countries’ forces also had a clash along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector of the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh which the Chinese claim to be a part of their territory.
“The G20 should focus on prominent challenges in the global economy. China stands ready to work with all parties to ensure the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting sends a positive signal on multilateralism,” Mao Ning, an official in the Chinese foreign ministry said, according to reports.
The Chinese diplomat’s visit comes days after India said it will give a strong message to China, asking it not to alter the status quo at the LAC.
According to a report by the Times of India, Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar may hold a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting.
India is expected to reiterate at the meeting that normal ties between the two nations are possible only if there is peace, tranquility and normalcy at the LAC regions.
Among other top diplomats who will attend the meeting are US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, UK foreign secretary James Cleverly and also ministers from non-G20 member states and representatives from multilateral bodies.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi will address the meeting.
A meeting of the foreign ministers of the Quad member nations — India, Australia, Japan and the US — is also expected to be held on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meet.
