Chinese FM arrives after A KABUL Stop
China's foreign minis- ter Wang Yi arrived in
Delhi on Thursday, the first high-level dignitary to do so in more than two years, since the stand-off in Ladakh.
Wang flew into New Delhi after an impromptu visit to Kabul where he met Taliban leaders; sources said he is scheduled to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Friday morning.
Wang's visit is aimed at resuming the one-to-one talks and also to invite PM Modi for a BRICS meeting to be hosted by Beijing later this year.
Both sides kept the visit under the wraps, the suspense persisted until the last minute and there was no official confirmation of the visit even when the Chinese minister landed. The landing could be confirmed only after tracking the flight path of his plane, which took off from Afghanistan, reports Newsflixall
It is learnt that the foreign minister's unannounced visit is more to do with the geopolitical powerplay in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with China even signalling its willingness to assist Moscow in dealing with crippling economic sanctions.
But the visit has also come amid a fresh controversy over Wang's statement on Kashmir at a programme in Pakistan, where he was on an official visit. New Delhi had rejected the remarks, calling them "uncalled for" and underscored that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter of India and both Pakistan and China know that.
Repeated rounds of military-level talks between India and China have led to deescalation in eastern Ladakh - the two sides completed the disengagement process last year in the north and south banks of the Pangong lake and in the Gogra area. But there has been no return to the status quo that prevailed before 2020.
