Indian foreign minister Dr S Jaishanker and his counter part the Chinese Foreign Minister Mr. Wang Yi held two meetings in the month of July, the first on 4th and the other on 25th spaced three weeks apart.
These were held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Heads of State and East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers Meeting respectively.
Given that there have been no bilateral meetings between the two countries’ foreign ministers as well as heads of states for some time in the past, holding two in the same month was an achievement.
While there have been events such as the Munich Security Summit where the two foreign ministers were present, but for exchange of pleasantries there was no interaction this year. While two meetings of Dr S Jaishanker and Mr. Wang Yi in July raised hopes, the content analysis of statements issued by the two sides – separately reveals considerable divergence of priorities.
India has been insisting that disengagement of the remaining areas where troops on both sides continue to be deployed face to face so to say in Eastern Ladakh was the crux to remove obstacles to normalcy of relations. For China the priority was to review relations from the strategic perspective and properly handle the differences to ensure stable development of India China relations.
A content analysis of the Statements underlines the difference in focus of the two sides.
In the statements issued after the bilateral after the SCO Meet, the Indian statement emphasis on resolution of the border issues as a priority was evident as this was the expressed with 190 words of the 279 devoted to the meeting.
On the other hand, the Chinese statement has just 57 words on the boundary issue in 490 words statements which emphasized on the necessity for an understanding between the two sides on the 70th anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, work for the Global South to cooperate given the complex geopolitical situation and so on.
During the meeting held on the sidelines of the EAS Foreign Ministers in Laos Cambodia the narrative followed the same plot.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued two media reports of the event. The first was the opening Statement of Dr S Jaishanker and the second a press release after the event. Jaishanker continued to emphasise on boundary resolution with 69 words in the 356 word speech and 131 words in the 208 words statement.
Sticking to the line adopted in the meeting in Astana, the Chinese statement contained just 41 words on the boundary issue of the over 411.
There is no gainsaying that there could have been substantial discussions by both sides on the boundary issue as well as other major geopolitical and regional developments where India and China could jointly work for a resolution.
However, a review of the statements showed that publicly at least they continued to stick to the policy of the Indian position as status quo on the border being the driver for India China relations while the Chinese continuing to emphasise on keeping this in a, “proper,” place rather than subsuming the discourse.
While the two foreign ministers had agreed for an early meeting of the Working Mechanism on Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC)in Astana as well as Laos, to take the discussions forward in both the meets, how early the WMCC meets will determine the possibility of any progress in resolution of the standoff on the Line of Control in Ladakh.
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