Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Monday told his Chinese counterpart that India's decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir has no implication on external boundaries with Pakistan or Line of Actual Control (LAC) that India shares with China.
Jaishankar told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that India's recent move was an internal matter and was decided to boost better governance and socio-economic development in the region. "There was no implication for either the external boundaries of India or Line of Actual Control with China. India wasn't raising any additional territorial claims."
The Chinese concerns in this regard were misplaced", the Foreign Minister said, at the second India China High Level Mechanism (HLM) meeting on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges in Beijing.
Jaishankar who is on a three-day visit to Beijing said, "It was important that differences between us, if any, should not become disputes... I hope today the discussions we have would help us translate those convergences into many more shared activities and collaborations."
The minister said that the current boundary between India and China was based on mutually agreed fair and reasonable settlement according to the 2005 Political Parameters and Guiding Principles.
Wang Yi, who met Pakistan Prime Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi four days ago on the Kashmir issue, said in the meeting, "China and India, as two big nations, have important responsibilities for upholding the regional peace and stability."
"When it comes to the recent tensions between India and Pakistan and the possible ramifications, we follow these developments very closely. We hope India would also play a constructive role for the regional peace and stability," he added.
Jaishankar told Yi that the matter concerning India's legislative decisions is "an internal matter for India" and that "the Chinese side should base its assessment on realities."
The minister of External Affairs also said that he discussed several issues including the disputed Aksai Chin region, Afghanistan and the Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor with Chinese diplomats on Monday.
Foreign ministers of both India and China will lay the groundwork for the second informal summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping that is scheduled to take place later this year.
