India on Thursday neither confirmed nor denied the reports of a diplomatic visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said that he had no information pertaining to FM Yi’s proposed visit to India.
“I have a very short answer on this. I don’t have any information to share on this at this moment,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Baghchi said in response to questions regarding Yi’s visit.
It was reported earlier this week that the Chinese foreign minister will reportedly visit India by the end of March.
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If the visit is confirmed, it will be a first trip for a high-level leader of the Chinese government to visit India since the 22-months old military tensions at the LAC, which began after a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas, peaked in June 2020 in the Galwan valley where 20 Indian soldiers were martyred following a violent confrontation triggered by China.
The visit is said to be part of FM Yi’s trip to the Indian subcontinent where he will be visiting Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
FM YI last week said that New Delhi and Beijing must stop “draining each other’s energies” and work together to accomplish respective economic and social goals.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian last week said that it hoped that Beijing and New Delhi will make significant progress to achieve settlement on the border issue which is acceptable to both the countries.
In a recent report titled “Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence community” compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, it cited the 2020 lethal Galwan clashes as a critical event which has strained the relations between the two nuclear armed neighbours.
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“Previous standoffs have demonstrated that persistent low-level friction on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has the potential to escalate swiftly,” the report said.
The MEA spokesperson also informed that the Chinese are yet to provide any “categorical response” regarding return of Indian students to China to complete their studies which have been disrupted since the advent of COVID19
