India plays down Taiwan team’s visit as China protests

Aweekbeforeforeignsecretary S Jaishankar is expected to visit China for bilateral meetings, India Wednesday downplayed a trip by a Taiwanese delegation, saying that no political meaning should be read into it.

China lodged a protest with India over the delegation’s visit and has asked it to deal “prudently” with Taiwan-related matters.

Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “We understand that a group of Taiwanese academics and business persons, including a couple of legislators, is visiting India. Such informal groups have visited India in the past as well for business, religious and tourist purposes.

“I understand that they do so to China as well. There is nothing new or unusual about such visits and political meanings should not be read into them,” he added.

Earlier, the Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said, “China lodged representations with India” over the Taiwan parliamentary delegation’s visit to New Delhi. “We hope that India would understand and respect China’s core concerns, stick to the ‘One-china’ principle and prudently deal with Taiwan-relatedissues,”gengsaid.

A three-member women’s parliamentary delegation from Taiwan visited India earlier this week amid signals of increasing engagement between the two sides. Taiwan currently has Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre located in New Delhi. India’s office in Taiwan is called India-taipei Association.

China, which considers Taiwan as part of its mainland, opposes any diplomatic relations as well as political contacts with Taipei by countries which have diplomatic relations with it.

— WITH PTI, BEIJING

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