EAM likely to visit China for SCO bilateral meet in third week of July

External affairs minister S Jaishankar is expected to visit China in the third week of July to attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting and for bilateral meetings with key Chinese leaders, people familiar with the matter said.

- Rezaul H Laskar

This will be Jaishankar’s first visit to China since bilateral relations were at their lowest point in six decades due to a military standoff in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAO) that began in April-May 2020. Since India and China reached a ceasefire understanding last October, Jaishankar has met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the margins of multilateral events several times.

Jaishankar is expected to travel to Beijing for a bilateral meeting with Wang before going to Tianjin for the meeting of the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs during July 14-15, the people said on condition of anonymity.