No return gifts: Modi welcomes Xi. There is still confusion on whether there will be a Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Hamburg with both sides giving out confusing signals. The situation over the border issue escalates by the day and a meeting between the two leaders could help bring the temperature down.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilateral meetings with the top leadership of eight countries, including Britain, Japan and Canada, and also participate in a BRICS leaders meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, a senior official said on Thursday.
The comments came after China said there will be no meeting at Hamburg between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Indian leader in the wake of a stand-off between the troops of both sides in Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.
“The Prime Minister is visiting Hamburg from July 6 to 8 for G20 Summit,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said in response to a query.
“His pre-planned bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit are with Argentina, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, ROK (South Korea), the UK and Vietnam.
“In addition, he will also participate in the BRICS Leaders’ meeting. There is no change in the Prime Minister’s schedule,” he added.
Earlier, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said President Xi and Prime Minister Modi were unlikely to meet on the sidelines of the summit as “the atmosphere is not right” due to their border stand-off.
While the Indian Foreign Ministry has not indicated whether Modi and Xi will hold a bilateral meeting, there is every likelihood of their meeting, even in passing, during the five-nation Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa leaders’ meeting, which is traditionally held on the sidelines of a G20 summit.
Modi and Xi will be in the same room and sitting around the same table at the BRICS leaders meeting, a close group meeting during which leaders of the five countries set the agenda for the way forward.
While the cold vibes between the two sides are in full display over the Doklam stand-off, with China markedly ratcheting up the rhetoric — both in Beijing and their embassy in New Delhi — a meeting between the two leaders would help bring down temperatures.
Even as bilateral tensions are at a high, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar is in Beijing to participate in a BRICS Education Ministers meet. He held “good discussions” with his Chinese counterpart Chen Baosheng and also met “with an old friend” Chinese Special Envoy on climate change Xie Zhenhua, the Indian Embassy in Beijing tweeted.
“The atmosphere is not right for a bilateral meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry official said.
The Foreign Ministry made it more evident by saying that the “trespass” by Indian troops into Chinese territory “had damaged the political foundations of bilateral relations between China and India.
“As for the arrangement of the bilateral meeting (at G20) between President Xi and Prime Minister Modi, I have to point out that recently Indian troops trespassed into China and obstructed normal activities of Chinese troops in Doklam region,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.
“This endangers China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and damaged the political foundations of bilateral relations between China and India.
“Regarding the bilateral meeting of President Xi and PM Modi, we will release it in a timely manner,” Geng added.
“We hope India can immediately withdraw the border troops to the Indian side of the boundary and uphold peace and tranquillity of the China-India border areas.
“I think this is the pre-condition for any meaningful peace talks between the two sides.”
At the same time, Geng warned that India would have face “serious consequences” if it did not withdraw troops from Doklam.
The official said Doklam was well within the Chinese territory but India’s action had changed the status quo. “Only when India pulls back troops, the status quo will be restored.
“Under the pretext of protecting Bhutan, India has illegally entered China’s territory hindering negotiation process between China and Bhutan,” the official added.
Thursday’s development came a day after calls by the state-run Chinese media for a war with India.
In its sharpest comment since the Indian and Chinese troops scuffled in Doklam, the Global Times said on Wednesday that China must teach India “a bitter lesson”.
The newspaper said in an editorial that China would inflict greater losses on India than it did in the 1962 war if New Delhi incited a military conflict.
It also said that the Indians would be “kicked out” of Doklam by the Chinese military.
Beijing has also hinted that the development could derail the boundary talks between India and China.
China also said that India had “trampled upon” the Panchsheel pact by illegally entering into Chinese territory.
Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a stand-off in Doklam on the Sikkim sector since the middle of June.
India has said Beijing’s action to “unilaterally determine tri-junction points” violated a 2012 India-China pact which says the boundary would be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.
The two countries, which fought a brief but bitter war in 1972, share a little over 200 km of border in the Sikkim sector.
The Chinese Embassy described India’s claim of Doklam region belonging to Bhutan as “groundless” and said that for any meaningful dialogue Indian troops must pull back from the area “unconditionally and immediately”.
Li Ya, Political Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy, in a video message said, “On June 18, Indian border troops crossed the Sikkim section of the China-India boundary triggering a close range face-off.”
He said the Sikkim sector is “delimited” by the 1890 Sino-Britain convention relating to Tibet and Sikkim.
“In essence, China’s territorial sovereignty has been undermined by the Indian border troops,” the Chinese official said, repeating the accusations levelled by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
The Chinese political counsellor said that following the face-off the Indian side has claimed that Doklam belongs to Bhutan and that China “changed the status quo” of the area and New Delhi cited its security concern.
He said India has given “three major arguments to justify its trespassing into Chinese territory”.
Li, who claimed that he has first-hand knowledge of the area, said that based on his knowledge and work “for the past decade” India’s “position is groundless”.
Reiterating what the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been stressing in its briefings in Beijing, Li said “Doklam belongs to China”.
“We have strong evidence to prove that Doklam belongs to China. Doklam has always been the traditional pasture for Chinese border inhabitants. The archives of Xizang Autonomous region still retain some receipts of the grass tax paid by Bhutanese herdsmen,” he claimed.
“Today the Chinese border troops still patrol there and the herdsmen graze their livestock there, and production and living facilities have been built there,” he said.
On India maintaining that China is changing the status quo of the region, he said that “since Doklam is part of Chinese territory, the activities conducted by China in Doklam are within China’s sovereignty”.
“It is the Indian side that trespassed into Chinese territory and changed the status quo,” he alleged.
“As to Indian security concerns, India crossed a delimited boundary into another country’s territory in the name of security concerns, no matter what kind of activities it conducts there, which will not be acceptable to any sovereign state.”
“As far as the solution is concerned, the Indian border troops must pull back to the Indian side of the boundary unconditionally and immediately. That is the precondition for any meaningful dialogue between China and India,” Li added. (IANS)