• By Nidhi Giri
  • Mon, 27 Jan 2025 09:54 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is set to meet his Chinese counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, on Monday for bilateral talks after arriving in Beijing on Sunday, January 26, for a two-day visit. Vikram Misri on Sunday met a top Chinese Communist Party (CPC) leader. This is the second such high-profile visit from India to China in less than one-and-a-half months.

In Misri’s meeting with Liu Jianchao, head of the International Department of the CPC’s central committee, “the two sides exchanged views on jointly implementing the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthening exchanges and dialogues, and promoting the improvement and healthy and stable development of China-India relations, as well as international and regional issues of common concern”, Chinese state-backed outlet Global Times reported.

The Foreign Secretary’s visit is a move to repair damaged bilateral ties after Chinese incursions in 2020 triggered a military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

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Earlier, Chinese officials had said the two sides were discussing ways to bring ties back to “normal” — as it was before the face-off began in April-May 2020.

China had Friday welcomed Foreign Secretary Misri’s visit and had sounded positive about its outcome, saying the development followed a series of interactions between top leaders and officials from both countries after over four years of stalled ties over the Ladakh military standoff.

“We welcome Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri’s travel to China for the meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between China and India,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning had told a media briefing in Beijing.

The MEA had said on Thursday that “Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will be visiting Beijing on January 26 and 27 for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between India and China”.

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“The resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains,” it said in a brief statement.

Misri's visit comes just over a month after National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Beijing on December 18 — less than two months after a border patrolling arrangement was announced on October 21, which was followed by a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23.