This will be the first visit to India by a Chinese Foreign Minister in three years since Wang Yi’s visit in 2019 for the Special Representatives dialogue on the border mechanism.
China’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Qin Gang will attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Delhi on March 2. As per Reuters, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that he will travel to India this week after being invited by his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar.
“The G20 should focus on prominent challenges in the global economy. China stands ready to work with all parties to ensure the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting sends a positive signal on multilateralism,” Reuters quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry as saying. Qin Gang, who previously served as China’s ambassador to the US, is expected to meet with Jaishankar during the event.
This will be the first visit to India by a Chinese Foreign Minister in three years since Wang Yi’s visit in 2019 for the Special Representatives dialogue on the border mechanism.
The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting is expected to address Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the increasingly tense US-China relations. However, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi may miss the event due to a scheduling conflict with a Diet session.
India and China are also expected to discuss the ongoing friction along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the eastern Ladakh area.
Tensions between the two countries escalated last year after troops from both sides clashed along the LAC at Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. In February of this year, the neighboring countries agreed to disengage in the two remaining friction areas along the LAC to create conditions for “restoring normalcy” in relations.