External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Beijing

Beijing:11/8/19:External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Beijing today on a key three-day visit to hold talks with the Chinese leadership.  A host of issues is sought to be discussed, including finalisation of arrangements for President Xi Jinping’s visit to India later this year for the second informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The visit of Mr Jaishankar, the first Indian minister to tour China after the Modi government began its second term, is also taking place in the aftermath of India’s decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir. His visit was finalised much before India’s move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution.

S Jaishankar, who was the first career diplomat to become the External Affairs Minister, served as India’s Ambassador to China from 2009 to 2013, the longest tenure by an Indian envoy.

His official engagements will begin tomorrow with a call on Chinese leadership. It has not been officially announced yet about whom he would be meeting. It will be followed by a bilateral meeting with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Later the two ministers will also co-chair the second meeting of the High-Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges. The first was a meeting held in New Delhi last year.

They are also scheduled to address the media at the closing ceremony of the 4th India-China High-Level Media Forum being organised by China Public Diplomacy Association and attend a cultural gala being held by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Four Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) were expected to be signed during Jaishankar’s visit.