Sushma to visit China for SCO meet

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to China next month to participate in the foreign ministers meeting of the Shanghai C o o p e r a t i o n Organisation ( SCO), ahead of the SCO summit that is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June. She is also expected to visit Japan and the US before her visit to China.

Ms Swaraj’s visit will take place in the backdrop of efforts being made by both India and China to improve ties after last year’s military stand- off at Doklam in Bhutanese territory.

News agencies cited officials as saying that Ms Swaraj is scheduled to travel to Japan on a bilateral visit from

March 28, and will also undertake a trip to the US to participate in the strategic dialogue in the “2+ 2” format ( foreign and defence consultations) in Washington on April 18. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also scheduled to travel to the US for the dialogue.

“The external affairs minister will be travelling to China to attend the SCO foreign ministers’ scheduled for April 23- 24,” a senior official was quoted by news agencies as saying. India, which had been an “observer” in the SCO since 2005, was made full member last year along with Pakistan. During her China visit, Ms Swaraj is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the summit. The two leaders had held a bilateral in December in New Delhi on the sidelines of the Russia- IndiaChina trilateral. The minister is also likely to hold bilateral talks with her counterparts from other SCO countries on the sidelines of the meeting but it was not clear whether she will have any bilateral interaction with her Pakistani counterpart.

The visit is also being seen as an opportunity for both India and China to work on the agreement, reached between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping in the Chinese city of Xiamen in September last year, that sound development of relations between India and China are a factor of stability amidst today’s global uncertainties, and that the two countries should not allow their differences to become disputes.

Troops of India and China were locked in a 73- day- long standoff in Doklam from mid- June last year after the Indian side stopped the building of a road in Bhutanese territory by the Chinese PLA. The face- off ended towards the end of August last year.