India-China strategic dialogue: Foreign secretary Jaishankar to travel to Beijing next week

NEW DELHI: Recognizing a need to engage China more deeply at a time when India-China relations are at an unusual low, foreign secretary S Jaishankar will travel to

Beijing

next week for the first India-China strategic dialogue.

This was a new mechanism set up in 2016, over and above the other existing dialogue forums. The decision was taken by Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart

Wang Yi

, when the latter visited here in August. The first dialogue under that understanding will be held now.

Speaking at the Gateway House geo-economic dialogue in Mumbai on Tuesday, Jaishankar said the government wanted to engage China much more deeply. It was a focus point by the foreign secretary at the recent

Raisina Dialogue

as well.

Bilateral ties are in a trough since China decided to remain the outlier on India’s NSG bid last summer. This was compounded by China’s block on Pakistani terror leader Maulana Masood Azhar. Meanwhile, Beijing’s flagship Belt&Road project, CPEC, is being designed to run through Indian-claimed territory. While India has raised concerns, Beijing has refused to engage India on this. India’s aspirations on the UN Security Council, too has met the Chinese wall.

In India, there is a growing sense that China wants to thwart India’s global rise even as bilateral trade has prospered. In this backdrop, it has been felt necessary to engage China more closely on a host of other issues, to ensure the relationship does not get bogged down in differences.

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