China India Photo:CFP
India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will pay a visit to China, during which he will participate in the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States in Tianjin on July 15, Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.
This will be his first visit to China since 2020, Times of India reported.
A Chinese expert told the Global Times that Jaishankar's visit sent an important signal to the outside world that bilateral relations between the two countries are continuing to improve.
Jaishankar's visit follows the recent visits of India's Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to China, The Hindu reported.
Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun met with Singh in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province on June 26, according to a statement released by the official WeChat account of China's Ministry of National Defense.
Singh was quoted as saying that India does not seek conflict or confrontation with China and is willing to properly manage differences, enhance communication and mutual trust and promote the steady development of bilateral relations.
The most important reason for Jaishankar's visit to China is to attend the SCO meeting, Lin Minwang, a deputy director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Sunday.
According to Lin, the core agenda of Jaishankar's visit revolves around several key issues.
First is the important aspects of bilateral relations, such as personnel exchanges and visa facilitation, which have been under discussion for almost a year, but the Indian side has previously been putting up hurdles. Second is what India calls economic pressure, including the impact of China's rare earth export controls on India's automotive industry, Lin told the Global Times.
Additionally, implementing the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and further improving China-India relations were also key topics of discussion, said Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, on Sunday.
Qian also told the Global Times on Sunday that the SCO summit is likely to become a significant milestone in the improvement of China-India relations, as bilateral ties, high-level interactions and meetings have always played a strategic guiding role in ensuring steady progress.
Against the backdrop of this year's SCO meeting in China, multiple senior Indian officials have visited China in succession. This will undoubtedly contribute to a more positive and stable improvement in China-India relations, Qian told the Global Times.
However, the key to whether China-India relations can improve still lies with India. India's domestic political environment has influenced its China policy, Lin said. At the same time, shifts in US-China relations are also a significant factor, the expert noted.