New Delhi: National security advisor Ajit Doval on Friday held talks with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi in Shanghai, as part of regular high level consultations between the Asian giants, an Indian foreign ministry statement said. The Doval-Yang meeting comes ahead of several key dialogues between the two countries trying to reset bilateral ties after last year’s 73-day-long stand-off on the Dokalam plateau.
“The discussions covered a wide agenda spanning bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest. The two sides agreed to maintain the pace of high-level exchanges, with a view to fully realise the potential of closer development partnership between India and China,” the Indian statement said.
Both Doval and Yang are special representatives for the India-China boundary talks. Yang attended the 20th round of boundary talks between the two countries in Delhi in December. Since then, the two sides have been trying to iron out differences on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and China blocking efforts to designate Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist by the United Nations (UN).
The two countries are preparing for a series of high-level interactions leading up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in June and a “high level” visit from China.
Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman are scheduled to be in Beijing on 24 April to attend different meetings of the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The SCO groups together China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India and Pakistan.