External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will leave for China on Sunday on a three-day visit to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.
This is Jaishankar's first visit to China after assuming office in the external affairs ministry. His visit comes ahead of the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in India in October.
Jaishankar, during his time in Beijing, will co-chair the second meeting of the India-China High Level Mechanism (HLM) on cultural and people-to-people exchanges on August 12 with Wang.
Jaishankar had met Wang in Bangkok last week where both leaders exchanged views on ways and means of further strengthening India-China relations.
“The HLM reflects the desire on both sides to build greater synergies in the people-to-people ties between the two countries through enhanced exchanges in areas such as tourism, art, films, media, culture and sports,” the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in a statement.
The decision to establish the HLM was taken during the first informal summit between Modi and Xi in Wuhan in April 2018. The inaugural HLM meeting was held on December 21 last year ion New Delhi.
“The second HLM meeting will provide an opportunity to follow up on the outcomes of the 1st HLM meeting and discuss new initiatives for enhancing people-to-people exchanges between our two countries,” the MEA said.
Jaishankar's visit to China comes amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan after the Centre scrapped Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, and bifurcated it into two Union Territories last week.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi visited China to raise the Kashmir issue with the Chinese leadership and seek Beijing's support to take the matter to the UN.
(With inputs from PTI)
