EAM likely to visit China for SCO meet later this month

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 taken to their lowest point in six decades by a military standoff in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that began in April-May 2020. Since India and China reached an understanding on ending the face-off 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. The bilateral meeting will be part of an ongoing series of meetings between senior Indian and Chinese officials to find a solution to the longstanding border dispute.