The Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi reached New Delhi on March 24th, 2022. There was no official announcement of the visit — not in Beijing, or in New Delhi. Mr. Yi met with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at Hyderabad House in New Delhi where he will be hosted for a luncheon, and is also slated to visit National Security advisor Ajit Doval.
Greeted Chinese FM Wang Yi at Hyderabad House.
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) March 25, 2022
Our discussions commence shortly. pic.twitter.com/eWq4gXIeK0
Wang’s unannounced arrival came hours after New Delhi issued a second statement on Beijing’s association with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad where the Chinese Foreign Minister was the chief guest. “Nations and governments that associate themselves with such exercises should realise the impact it has on their reputation,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs said in response to the Chinese FM's remarks at the OIC summit held in Pakistan from March 22-23.
During the OIC summit where China was invited as a special guest, Wang Yi had said: "On Kashmir, we have heard again today the calls of many of our Islamic friends. And China shares the same hope”. Pakistan, the host of the summit, considers Jammu and Kashmir as a territorial dispute with India while India’s stance is that it is an integral part of the country and an “internal matter”.
The visit happened at a time when troops of both countries are engaged in a tough border stand-off on the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) for nearly two years now. This is the Chinese foreign minister’s first visit to India since the stand-off began in April-May 2020 and witnessed the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in June 2020 in the Galwan Valley.
15 rounds of corps-commander level talks have taken place until date between the militaries of the two countries to negotiate disengagement at key points along the disputed border in Ladakh. Wang Yi last visited India for the Special Representative talks on the boundary question with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in December 2019.
Wang Yi will leave for Nepal Friday afternoon. He visited Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan where the unrecognized Taliban government is in power, in the first visit to the country by a major world power.
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