India’s Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar met China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi to initiate the strategic dialogue between the two countries. This was the first strategic dialogue between the two nations.
This strategic dialogue is the latest among over 30 dialogue mechanisms to have emerged over the years between the two countries in diverse areas.
India explained its rationale to China on the listing of Azhar under UN 1267 sanctions committee during this strategic talk.
Jaishankar said that China was open to India’s application for membership in NSG, though Beijing is caught up on its view of procedures and processes, which is unalike others in the grouping.
Jaishankar has explained India’s development efforts like Herath dam and electricity projects to China during the talk.
The discussions also took place on Africa, Iran and related international political situation.
On Afghanistan issue, Jaishankar said, “At the end of the discussion there was an understanding on how India and China can cooperate in capacity building in Afghanistan. On Afghanistan, they certainly seem to suggest to us that their approach and policies are in tandem with us, not on different page.”
The talks were being held in the backdrop of vocal differences between the two countries on a host of issues including India’s concern over the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Beijing’s reluctance to back India’s application to join the NSG and the UN ban on Azhar.
The strategic dialogue was upgraded during Chinese Foreign Minister Yi’s visit to New Delhi last year. China has deputed Zhang, also the head of the influential Communist Party of China (CPC) committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry to co-chair the talks.
