Face of Nation : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived Beijing Sunday on a key three-day visit to hold talks with the Chinese leadership on a host of issues including finalisation of arrangements for President Xi Jinping’s visit to India later this year for the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The visit of S Jaishankar, the first Indian minister to tour China after the Modi government began its second term, is also taking place in the aftermath of India’s decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir and its division into two Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. His visit was finalised much before India’s move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Jaishankar, who is the first career diplomat to become the External Affairs Minister, served as India’s Ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013, the longest tenure by an Indian envoy.
S Jaishankar’s official engagements will begin Monday with a call on Chinese leadership. It has not been officially announced yet about whom he would be meeting. It will be followed by bilateral meeting with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Officials say his talks with Wang would cover wide ranging issues including finalisation of arrangements for the President Xi’s visit to India. Modi and Xi set the bilateral relations back on track with their first-ever informal summit last year at Wuhan after a 73-day standoff at Doklam between the two militaries in 2017.
