Jaishankar & Chinese counterpart hold bilateral talks with LAC as focus area

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday held bilateral talks with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang with a focus on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The discussions took place on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

"Met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on sidelines of #G20FMM this afternoon. Our discussions were focused on addressing current challenges to the bilateral relationship, especially peace and tranquillity in the border areas," Jaishankar tweeted.

It is the first meeting between Jaishankar and Qin after the latter became the Chinese foreign minister in December.

The talks came nearly eight months after Jaishankar held a meeting with the then-Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in Bali on the sidelines of a G20 meeting.

During the one-hour meeting on July 7, Jaishankar conveyed to Wang the need for early resolution of all the outstanding issues in eastern Ladakh.

The external affairs minister had told Wang that the relationship between the two countries should be based on "three mutuals" -- mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interests.

Wang had visited India in March last year.

On February 22, India and China held in-person diplomatic talks in Beijing and discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining friction points along the LAC in eastern Ladakh in an "open and constructive manner".

The meeting took place under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs.

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