Jaishankar holds bilateral meeting with Chinese counterpart

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday held bilateral meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' meet.

The meeting between the two was focused on issues related to border areas.

"Met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of #G20FMM this afternoon. Our discussions were focused on addressing current challenges to the bilateral relationship, especially peace and tranquillity in the border areas," the Minister tweeted.

It was the first meeting between Jaishankar and Qin after the latter became the Chinese foreign minister in December.

The talks came nearly eight months after Jaishankar held a meeting with the then Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Bali on the sidelines of a G20 meeting.

The meeting gained significance in view of continuing US-China tensions and the military standoff between the two sides in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control.

Following the June 2020 clash at Galwan Valley, the relations between the two countries have been the most tense in the past many years.

Earlier on Thursday, Jaishankar also met his US counterpart Antony Blinken, wherein the two held discussions on bilateral ties and pressing global issues including the Ukraine conflict.

Earlier, on February 22, the 26th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was held in person in Beijing.

As per the External Affairs Ministry, the two sides reviewed the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas and discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining areas in an open and constructive manner, which would help in restoration of peace and tranquillity along the LAC in Western Sector and create conditions for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations.