China, India in Kashmir talks

TOP Indian and Chinese diplomats have met in Beijing amid increased tensions over New Delhi’s move to change the legal status of territory it controls in Kashmir, part of which China claims as its own.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency said Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Beijing on Monday that China hopes India will “play a constructive role in regional peace and stability”.

Xinhua cited Jaishankar as saying India would “abide by the consensus reached with China on maintaining peace in the border and continue to work with China to properly solve the border issue through consultations”.

The countries went to war in 1962 over their disputed border and their armed forces engaged in a 10-week standoff in the neighbouring state of Bhutan in 2017.

China claims some 90 000km2 of territory in India’s north-east, while India says China occupies 38 000km2 of its territory in the Aksai Chin plateau in the western Himalayas, including the Ladakh region, which New Delhi this month made into a territory separate from the rest of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Jaishankar told Wang that legal moves regarding Kashmir were India’s “internal” matter that had no bearing on its external boundaries or relations with China.

It said the minister also met with Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan, a top adviser to Chinese leader Xi Jinping on foreign and economic policy.