Meeting shows desire to stabilize ties

The two interactions between the foreign ministers of the world's two most populous countries within a month have once again sent a clear signal of their willingness to stabilize bilateral ties amid the increasingly turbulent international situation.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday in Vientiane, Laos, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers' meeting.

They have agreed to make concerted efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, and work for new progress in consultations on border affairs, according to a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry.

They also pledged to strengthen communication within various multilateral platforms to jointly practice multilateralism, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.

A similar meeting took place earlier this month in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

China and India should properly handle differences and develop mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the improvement and development of Sino-Indian relations in a rational manner, Wang said at the Thursday meeting.

Wang urged the two neighbors to step up dialogue and communication and increase understanding and mutual trust.

China-India relations have an important impact that goes beyond the bilateral scope, he said. Stable ties serve the interests of both sides and are also the common expectation of countries in the Global South, he added.

Jaishankar said that India and China have broad converging interests and face the shadow brought by the situation in the border areas.

India is ready to find solutions to the differences and get bilateral relations back on a positive and constructive track, he said.

The Indian diplomat also said in a post on social media that: "It is in our mutual interest to stabilize our ties. We should approach the immediate issues with a sense of purpose and urgency."

Lin Minwang, deputy director of Fudan University's Center for South Asian Studies, said that China has always maintained a stable and restrained policy towards India.

At the same time, India has been adjusting its diplomatic approach from being predominantly pro-United States and anti-China to a more balanced policy, Lin said.

Given the current severe global challenges, a strained relationship with China is not a favorable choice for India, he said.

Lin said that there might be higher-level engagements in the future, and the relationship between the two countries could continue to see improvements.

Swaran Singh, a professor of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said that India-China relations have not been fully normalized since the standoff in the border area in June 2020.

While India maintains that relations cannot be normal as long as the situation on the border is not normalized, China insists that bilateral relations should not be held hostage to any single issue, he said.

The two foreign ministers have met more than a dozen times, while consultations on border affairs have been held multiple times at various levels, so this meeting can be seen as "one cog in the wheel of time" in the efforts to improve ties, Singh said.

He said he hopes that this meeting is part of reviving the India-China leaders' informal meeting, which first took place in 2018 in Wuhan, Hubei province, adding that this is the only forum which can break the ice on border-related issues.

The meeting with Jaishankar was part of Wang's busy diplomatic schedule in Vientiane, where he also met with foreign ministers including those from ASEAN members, Russia, South Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom.