Border, students and flights figure in Jaishankar-Yi talks

NEW DELHI: A day after China criticised Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for greeting Dalai Lama on his 87th birthday, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met China’s Foreign Affairs minister Wang Yi in Bali on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting. “Began my day in Bali by meeting FM Wang Yi of China. Discussion lasted one hour. Focused on specific outstanding issues in our bilateral relationship pertaining to the border situation. Also spoke about other matters, including students and flights,” Jaishankar said in a tweet.

The two sides discussed resolving the border standoff that began in April 2020. “The EAM called for an early resolution of all the outstanding issues along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. Recalling the disengagement achieved in some friction areas, he reiterated the need to sustain the momentum to complete disengagement from all the remaining areas to restore peace and tranquility in the border areas,” a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

Jaishankar reiterated that India-China relationship is best served by observing the three mutuals — mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests. The last diplomatic level talks under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs (WMCC) took place on May 31, 2022. Wang said that since March this year, China and India have maintained communication and exchanges, effectively managed differences, and the bilateral relations have generally “shown a momentum of recovery.”     China and India, he said, share common interests and similar legitimate claims. 

On the bilateral issues, Wang said the two countries should take practical actions to implement the important consensus of the leaders of the two countries that “the two countries are not each other’s threats, but cooperation partners and development opportunities.” He also said the two countries should push for the early return of the bilateral relations to the right track and light up the bright future of the relations together. China and India, Wang said, share common interests and similar legitimate claims, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, quoting a press release on the talks issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry here.

Apparently referring to independent stand struck by both the countries on the Ukraine issue, Wang said as the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, major countries like China and India will definitely not go with the flow but are destined to uphold strategic determination, achieve their respective development and revitalisation in accordance with the established goals, and make greater contributions to the future of mankind.

India in UNESCO panel on Cultural Heritage 
NEW DELHI: India has been elected as a member of the Intergovernmental Committee of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage for the 2022-2026. The elections for the Intergovernmental Committee took place during the 9th General Assembly of the 2003 Convention of three days began at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on July 5. The announcement to this effect was made by Union Minister for Vulture G Kishan Reddy on Thursday. “India gets elected for the Intergovernmental Committee of #UNESCO’s 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) for the 2022-2026 cycle,” he tweeted.