Wang Yi’s outreach meets with PM Modi’s reluctance to attend BRICS summit

New Delhi: Beijing’s plan to revive bilateral dialogue with New Delhi at the top level of leaderships came a cropper, with India giving the visiting China’s foreign minister Wang Yi a clear message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the in-person BRICS summit to be held later this year in China unless it carries out disengagement of troops at all the friction points in the Ladakh sector.
Highly-placed sources told The Sunday Guardian that “during the delegation-level talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi on Friday, Wang Yi was clearly told that PM Modi cannot attend the BRICS or Russia-India-China trilateral summit, with PLA troops violating bilateral agreements and international law along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh sector”.
Wang Yi’s request to call on PM Modi was also declined by the Indian side at the same time, sources said. “That PM is busy in the swearing-in ceremony in UP was the reason given to Wang,” sources added. “In fact, PM wanted to give the visiting Chinese minister a snub in what was a strong message also to the top leadership in Beijing which was keen that their foreign minister personally meets PM Modi to discuss the upcoming BRICS summit that would set the stage for resumption of high-level bilateral meetings,” top sources told The Sunday Guardian. Sources said “Wang, who came to Delhi on an unannounced visit, was here from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon. But he was not given time to meet the PM.” In what was a blunt message to Beijing, Jaishankar had already remarked that India’s relations with China are not normal. “When Indian foreign minister was on record describing the ties between the two nations as not normal, how could then China’s FM be allowed to meet the top leadership in Delhi,” a diplomat said. Also, the message was loud and clear that the high-level visits from India to China cannot resume when the two nations are not getting along well.
Moreover, Wang was told that PM Modi is deeply hurt by the Kashmir remarks that he made during a meeting of OIC in Pakistan. “Wang was also told that such developments derail the process of normalization of ties,” sources added. Wang Yi discussed with the EAM the points related to the BRICS summit to be held in China, and expressed his wish to meet PM Modi to personally invite him for the event. Sources said, “Jaishankar did not go into details like dates, etc., reiterating India’s stand that China should first complete the disengagement along LAC.” One of the agendas that Wang had come to Delhi with was to invite the PM for the BRICS summit and also for the RIC trilateral summit to be held on the sidelines. The Chinese government, in fact, wants the revival of bilateral talks between India and China at the level of PM. “Even Jaishankar and Doval will visit China only when there is a complete disengagement by Beijing from all the friction points along LAC. And this has been made clear by Doval himself,” sources said.
Observers believe that it is wrong of Beijing to say that the bilateral ties should not be held hostage to events on the LAC as military commanders of the two sides were discussing the Ladakh to settle the issues. The observers further say that contrary to what China argues, it is a more serious matter of violation of written agreements and pacts between the two nations. India has been pointing it out as well on many occasions. It has been proclaimed more often than not that India-China relations cannot get back to business as usual unless peace and tranquility are restored along the LAC in Ladakh.
The thinking in diplomatic circles is that China tries to dilute the LAC events describing it as a local issue, but the reality is that the happenings in eastern Ladakh region highlight China’s aggression which is visible everywhere in the Indo-Pacific and other countries in the form of debt trap diplomacy as well. In what underlines China’s sinister plans to create problems for India, it continues to lean towards Pakistan promoting its agenda against Kashmir, while at the same time ignoring terrorism being sponsored and promoted by Islamabad. “That is exactly what Jaishankar tried to explain to Wang Yi, giving a message that New Delhi knows all that Beijing is doing in the neighbourhood,” sources said.