Two important bilateral meetings are set to take place today on the sidelines of the ongoing G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting (FMM) – external affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar is scheduled to meet the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang
The meeting is scheduled to take place soon at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre where the G20 FMM is going on. Jaishankar will meet the US Secretary of State and later the Chinese Minister.
The meeting with the US Secretary is significant as the US-China tensions deepen and the Indian and Chinese forces are locked in a standoff in the eastern Ladakh region along the Line of Actual Control. India and the US have a lot of issues to address during the bilateral meeting as well at the QUAD meeting, which is scheduled for tomorrow. There are reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi
The meeting comes close on the heels of the recent visit of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to the US to launch the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET). Also the issue of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war too will be discussed again as it has a global impact on the economy, food and energy security and development.
India-China
During the bilateral talks Jaishankar is once again expected to reiterate the Indian side’s stated position of disengagement of troops on the LAC and to restore peace and tranquility in the border areas. And, according to people familiar with this the two sides are expected to talk about the possibility of holding the next round of high level military talks soon.
After more than two dozen rounds of diplomatic and military talks the two sides have withdrawn troops from the two banks of Pangong Lake, Gogra and Hot Springs after several rounds of talks at the diplomatic and military talks. However, two critical friction points – Depsang and Demchok remain.
China has been ramping up its military infrastructure and bridges and roads on its side of LAC as reported earlier in Financial Express Online.