In advance of a meeting of a Central Asian security forum being held in the tourist hotspot of Goa, the foreign minister of India has had meetings with colleagues from China and Russia.
According to Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, on the eve of the two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, he had thorough discussions on bilateral ties with Qin Gang, China’s foreign minister.
“Focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquilly in the border areas,” he wrote on Twitter following the meeting.
A protracted three-year standoff between India and China has thousands of soldiers stationed along their disputed border in the eastern Himalayan region of Ladakh.
Their military ministers’ meeting last week provided a peek of precisely how differently the two nations view the situation along the border. While China claimed that border situations were “generally stable,” India accused its neighbour of deteriorating relations by breaking bilateral agreements.
Twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese were murdered in an altercation in Ladakh three years ago.
Jaishankar added that he held a “comprehensive review of bilateral, global, and multilateral cooperation” with Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia.
According to analysts, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine carries on, India is likely to be concerned about Russia’s rising reliance on China.
The alliance between New Delhi and Moscow, its Cold War partner, has endured. Despite Western efforts to reduce Moscow’s oil revenue throughout its conflict with Kyiv, it has failed to denounce the Kremlin for the invasion of Ukraine and has become the biggest customer of Russian crude.
India, which continues to purchase the majority of its defence equipment from Russia, may find that Beijing’s growing influence over Moscow causes it some concern.
SCO foreign ministers have arrived in Goa, India, where they will likely discuss enhancing economic and security cooperation. The SCO is a security alliance predominated by Moscow and Beijing.
The SCO includes Pakistan, which is India’s bitter foe. First high-ranking Pakistani official to visit India in nearly ten years is the country’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Zardari’s visit has sparked rumours of a thaw in the tense relations between the two South Asian nations, although both ministers have denied rumours of a bilateral conversation.
Before leaving for India, Zardari tweeted, “During my visit, which is focused exclusively on the SCO, I look forward to constructive discussions with my counterparts from friendly countries.”
The conflict over Kashmir, a disputed Himalayan area that was divided between them but is simultaneously claimed by both, has a long history of strained relations between the two nations. Pakistan and India have engaged in two wars over Kashmir.
since 1947, when it was freed from British colonial administration.
Jaishankar spoke with SCO Secretary-General Zhang Ming earlier on Thursday, and he was scheduled to meet with the foreign minister of Uzbekistan as well.
As a counterbalance to American alliances stretching from East Asia to the Indian Ocean, Russia and China established the SCO in 2001. The four countries of Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan—which Russia views as its backyard are included in the group.
Iran will join later this year after India and Pakistan joined in 2017.
