Foreign Secy Set to Visit Beijing Amid Thaw in Ties

Foreign secretary Vikram Misri will travel to Beijing next week for talks with a Chinese vice foreign minister as part of meetings aimed at taking forward the normalising of relations following the disengagement of forces on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) last year.

- Rezaul H Laskar

Misri's visit to China during January 26-27 will follow meetings between the defence and foreign ministers of the two sides and talks of the Special Representatives on the border issue over the past two months.

Two days after India and China reached an understanding on October 21 on disengagement of troops, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Russia and agreed to revive several mechanisms to address the border dispute and normalise ties.

While announcing Misri's visit to Beijing on Thursday, the external affairs ministry said he was travelling for a meeting of the foreign secretary-vice minister mechanism between India and China.

"The resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains," the ministry said in a brief statement.