Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar begins visit to China; Masood Azhar, NSG and CPEC likely to be discussed

Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar began his visit to China by holding talks with the country's State Councillor Yang Jiechi in Beijing. He also said that India was "strongly committed" to maintaining good relations with China, ahead of a crucial strategic dialogue.

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Several issues will be discussed at the meeting.

Topmost was China's reluctance to include Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar on the UN's global terrorist list, and also to include India in the Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG); both have recently strained the relationship between the two nuclear-armed countries.  

India is also concerned about China's investment in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which will pass through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Another issue likely to be taken up during the meet is India's concerns about providing market access to China, in order to reduce the balance-of-payments gap between the two countries. 

India's foreign secretary is also set to hold a "reconstituted" strategic dialogue with China's Executive Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui on Wednesday and discuss issues like counter-terrorism and India's bid to become a member of the NSG.

The format of the meet was modified in 2016 during China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to India after the country put "technical holds" on India's bid to designate Azhar as a global terrorist under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.

The respective governments decided that a separate forum would be set up by the foreign ministries of both countries to specifically discuss India's bid to enter the NSG.

While Jaishankar is expected to meet Foreign Minister Wang during his stay in China and take up issues related to Azhar and the NSG, other topics can be carried out under the strategic dialogue framework, the Hindu quoted diplomatic sources as saying.

Yang, a former foreign minister who is now a top diplomat in China and also a Special Representative for boundary talks, on Tuesday, said that relations between the two countries have seen a "positive growth" in 2016 with President Pranab Mukherjee's visit to China and Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding three meetings with President Xi Jinping.

"We enjoyed good communication at many levels and continued good cooperation in fields of economy, trade, culture and people to people exchanges," Yang said.

He added that both countries "had been able to maintain sound economic and social development" despite a "fluid and complex" global situation.

"We truly hope that in the year ahead our two countries can enhance our exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation so that we can jointly contribute more to the peace, stability and development of our region and the world at large, and deliver more benefits to our two countries and the people of our two countries and the whole world," Yang further added.

He also thanked Jaishankar for his "important contribution" to building relations with China, both as an envoy to the country, and as foreign secretary. Jaishankar, in response, said that returning to Beijing gave him a sense of "nostalgia and very good feelings" about the time he spent in the country earlier.