External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday held bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa.
Jaishankar said resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquillity in the border areas remained the focus of the talks.
“A detailed discussion with State Councillor and FM Qin Gang of China on our bilateral relationship. Focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” he tweeted.
The two leaders also discussed SCO, G20 and BRICS, the minister further said.
Both Jaishankar and Qin had met in March when the Chinese foreign minister visited India to attend a G20 meeting. During the meeting, Jaishankar had conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that the state of India-China relations is "abnormal" because of the lingering border row in eastern Ladakh.
On April 27, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu on the sidelines of a conclave of the SCO defence ministers. The two leaders agreed that all issues relating to the frontier must be resolved in accordance with the existing pacts.
The ties between India and China nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.
