Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister to Meet Qin Gang the Chinese Foreign Minister, and Antony Blinken the U.S. Secretary of the State

Bilateral meetings to continue on Thursday between S Jaishankar, External Affairs Ministers with Antony Blinken and Qin Gang for the G20 meeting.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: March 02, 2023

S Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister of India will be in back-to-back bilateral meetings with Qin Gang (Chinese foreign minister) and Antony Blinken (U.S. Secretary of the state) on the note of the G20 meeting between foreign ministers on Thursday. After visiting the Central Asian states at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre (G20 meeting venue) at 11:30 AM, Blinken reached New Delhi on Wednesday late at night. Jaishankar will thus meet Blinken first and then follow up with other meetings.

In the noon, Jaishankar will meet with Qin immediately with Blinken. Qin is on his first visit to India and is a close aide to President Xi Jinping. He is the foreign minister and replaced Wang Yi last year. With continued tensions between U.S. and China, these meetings are important to lessen the chances of a military standoff between the Chinese and Indian troops on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh sector.

Considering the last 6 decades, relations between India and China are at the lowest given the clashes in June 2020 at the Galwan valley that caused the death of 20 Indian soldiers brutally, and 4 from the Chinese troops. Blinken has clarified that there are no plans for any meetings on the margins of the G20 meeting between him and his counterparts from China and Russia.

However, Jaishankar and Blinken’s meeting will probably help to review the progress on discussions and bilateral relations regarding international and regional issues such as that prevalent in the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine. In the recent few weeks, several visits have taken place from high-level contacts between the two nations. These include Ajit Doval, the National Security Adviser visiting the U.S. to launch the iCET (Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies).

Considering jaishankar’s meeting with Qin will perhaps focus on normalizing bilateral relations with the country and people by standing firm on India’s position on the withdrawal of frontline troops of China on the LAC. While China and India are considering relations for trade, the Chinese side has also stressed on putting the border tensions in an appropriate place. After several military and diplomatic talks, China and India withdrew troops from the invaded and disputed two banks – Gogra and Hot Springs of Pangong Lake.

But China has prepared military infrastructure, bridges, and roads on its LAC, causing friction for any progress in areas such as Demchok and Depsang. Jaishankar will also oversee other bilateral meetings with 9 guest countries set to attend the meeting for G20 foreign ministers and counterparts from G20 countries on Thursday. There will be meetings that the External Affairs Minister will attend with his counterparts from Germany and France.