External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will travel to China on August 11 on a three-day visit ahead of the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in India in October.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), announcing the visit on Monday, said Mr. Jaishankar would hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest.
First visit
It will be Mr. Jaishankar’s first visit to China after becoming External Affairs Minister.
The MEA said the two Foreign Ministers would also discuss upcoming high-level visits later this year.
In Beijing, Mr. Jaishankar will also co-chair the second meeting of the India-China High Level Mechanism (HLM) on cultural and people-to-people exchanges on August 12 with Mr. Wang.
Wuhan meet
The decision to establish the HLM was taken during the first informal summit between Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi in Wuhan in April 2018.
The inaugural HLM meeting was held on December 21 last year here.
“The second HLM meeting will provide an opportunity to follow up on the outcomes of the 1st HLM meeting and discuss new initiatives for enhancing people-to-people exchanges between our two countries,” the MEA said.
Greater synergies
It said the HLM reflected the desire on both sides to build greater synergies in the people-to-people ties between the two countries through enhanced exchanges in areas such as tourism, art, films, media, culture and sports.
In the second informal summit, Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi are likely to focus on further broadening India-China ties.
The two leaders held their first informal summit in April last year in the Chinese city of Wuhan months after bilateral ties came under severe strain following a 73-day stand-off between the Armies of the two countries in Doklam.
