The expansion of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to Nepal by a day has triggered speculation about whether India will be part of the itinerary for his trip to the region that began with Pakistan on Monday.
Wang, who holds the rank of state councillor, flew into Islamabad to participate in a meeting of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) council of foreign ministers on March 22 as a “special guest” and to join the Pakistan Day celebrations on March 23. Wang will also address the OIC meeting on Tuesday.
Nepal’s foreign ministry announced on Monday that Wang will visit the country at the invitation of his Nepalese counterpart Narayan Khadka during March 25-27. It was earlier expected that Wang’s visit to Nepal would be a two-day affair beginning on March 26.
The narrow window between Wang’s visits to Pakistan and Nepal triggered speculation whether India would be part of the itinerary for his trip to the region. People familiar with the matter said last week that the Indian side had received a proposal from the Chinese side for a visit by Wang and that the matter was being discussed by officials of the two countries.
The people had also said that Wang’s visit had not been firmed up and dates were yet to be finalised. Both countries have also not made any official announcements regarding the visit and there was no word on the matter from the external affairs ministry.
Wang’s presence at the OIC meeting – whose official agenda includes a review and assessment of the human rights and humanitarian situation in Jammu and Kashmir – is unlikely to go down well in New Delhi. A meeting of OIC’s ministerial contact group on Jammu and Kashmir will also be held on the margins of the council of foreign ministers’ meeting.
India’s military standoff with China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) figured in the India-Japan Summit on Saturday and the India-Australia virtual summit on Monday, and foreign secretary Harsh Shringla has said it cannot be “business as usual” in relations with Beijing until peace and tranquillity is restored in border areas.
Shringla told the media on Saturday that the Indian side informed the Japanese side about the “attempts at massing of troops, the attempts at multiple transgressions” on the LAC and ongoing talks with China on border-related issues.
“We also made it clear that until and unless we had a resolution of the issues involved [and] there was peace and tranquillity in the border areas, we could not consider the relationship to be business as usual,” he added.
Shringla told the media after the India-Australia virtual summit that the Indian side has “emphasised that peace and tranquillity in the border areas was an essential prerequisite for normalisation of relations with China”.
If Wang’s visit were to go ahead, it will be the first by a senior Chinese leader to India since the two countries were locked in the standoff in Ladakh sector in May 2020. After numerous rounds of diplomatic and military talks, the two sides have completed disengagement of frontline troops on the north and south banks of Pangong Lake and at Gogra. They have not made headway at several friction points in Ladakh sector and tens of thousands of troops have been deployed by each side through two winters.
(With inputs from agencies)