India, China foreign ministers agree to work on border issues

By Reuters
July 05, 2024
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Moscow, Russia September 10, 2020. — Reuters
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Moscow, Russia September 10, 2020. — Reuters

NEW DELHI/BEIJING: India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday in Kazakhstan where the two agreed to step up talks to resolve issues along their border, New Delhi said in a statement.

India and China share a long Himalayan border, much of it poorly demarcated, and relations between the two countries have been sour since a military standoff in July 2020 when at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed.

India said Jaishankar met Wang on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana where they agreed that “prolongation of the current situation in the border areas is not in the interest of either side.”

The two agreed to enhance meetings between their diplomatic and military officials “to resolve the remaining issues at the earliest,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.