- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday (4) held bilateral talks with his Chinese and Russian counterparts at the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting in Benaulim in the western Indian coastal state of Goa.
With Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang, Jaishankar reportedly held talks on the border row between the two neighbouring nations along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. Sources familiar with the matter said before the two foreign ministers met at a beach resort in Benaulim on the sidelines of the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting that the three-year border row in eastern Ladakh will be a focus area.
A detailed discussion with State Councillor and FM Qin Gang of China on our bilateral relationship. Focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
Also discussed SCO, G20 and BRICS. pic.twitter.com/hxheaPnTqG
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 4, 2023
The Jaishankar-Gang meeting was their second one in the last two months.
Comprehensive review of our bilateral, global and multilateral cooperation with FM Sergey Lavrov of Russia.
Appreciated Russia’s support for India’s SCO presidency. Also discussed issues pertaining to G20 and BRICS. pic.twitter.com/cgfhATd8D4
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) May 4, 2023
The Chinese foreign minister visited India in March to attend a meeting of the G20 foreign ministers.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Jaishankar held talks with Qin during which he conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is “abnormal” because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.
Last week, Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu at a SCO defence ministers’ meeting in New Delhi that China’s violation of existing border agreements “eroded” the entire basis of ties between the two countries and that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing pacts.
The ties between India and China 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.
Jaishankar on Thursday also held wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on overall bilateral cooperation, the Ukraine conflict and regional as well as global issues of mutual interest.
The Russian foreign minister landed in Goa on Thursday morning to attend the SCO conclave, a day after Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones in an unsuccessful attempt to kill its president Vladimir Putin.
Jaishankar and Lavrov reviewed the overall trajectory of bilateral engagement in the backdrop of the global geopolitical upheaval, people familiar with the matter said. There is no clarity yet on whether trade-related issues figured in the talks.
India has been pressing Russia for urgently addressing the trade imbalance that has been in favour of Moscow.
India’s trade deficit with Russia jumped significantly in the last few months after it procured significant volumes of discounted crude oil from that country in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been pushing for resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zaradari has also arrived in India for the SCO meet but will have no bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart.
(With PTI inputs)
