SUSHMA IN CHINA FOR TALKS, SCO MEET
BEIJING: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj arrived here on Saturday on a four-day visit during which she will hold talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and take part in the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). She is due to meet Wang on Sunday.
Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman will also arrive here on Monday to take part in the SCO defence ministers’ meeting to be held on Tuesday. She is expected to meet her Chinese counterpart Lt Gen Wei Fenghe.
Their meeting between Swaraj and Wang is part of efforts by the two countries to step up the pace of high-level interactions to improve relations, official sources here told PTI.
Following the Doklam standoff last year, both countries ramped up dialogue to scale down tensions and improve relations with talks at various levels.
They are meeting in the immediate backdrop of a recent meeting between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and top official of the ruling Communist Party of China Yang Jiechi in Shanghai. Both sides also held the 11th Joint Economic Group meeting and the fifth Strategic Economic Dialogue. Both sides also held working mechanism meetings on border affairs and cross border rivers as well disarmament and the non-proliferation dialogue.