External Affairs Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar’s visit to China at a crucial stage has come as no magic but certainly paved the way, at least by half, to make Beijing see the reason behind India’s demand.
The latest restructured strategic dialogue with Chinese counterpart Executive Vice Minister Mr. Zhang Yesui besides the State Counsellor Mr. Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Mr. Wang Yi, yielded response on several issues short of India’s demand on terrorism.
Other areas included Afghanistan, multilateral diplomacy including counter-terrorism and also bilateral relations as well as the nuclear issues.
Jaishankar summed up his visit as useful in conveying to the Chinese side “our priorities and concerns and also gaining from them an appreciation of their understanding of the world situation and in what manner we could work together,” which in non-diplomatic terms means some sort of status-quo will continue in India-China relations and that no one should expect any wonders to take place.
On Wednesday, it was a five-hour-long talks sharing views on international issues. China shared its insights and perspectives. What is the common point for both was international trade barriers which may pose equal threat to both Asian giants.
Both agreed that the international situation is in flux and both India and China probably could do one thing together which is a more stable, substantive, forward looking India-China relationship which would inject a greater amount of predictability into the international system, he said.
“On the NSG issue the Chinese side underlined that they were open to India’s application for membership but they had their view of procedures and processes and these were somewhat different from where we are at the moment and where we think most of the group is at the moment,” said Jaishankar summing up his talks.
On UN sanctions on Masood Azhar, India explained the rationale and sought support on its concerns about Masood Azhar’s activities.
Essentially the visit yielded no progress on thorny issues but on business front, there is a common sense of threat from trade barriers and unstable global system, unleashed by President Donald Trump in the US.