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At a time when US-imposed tariffs have strained Delhi’s ties with Washington DC, India is engaging with Russia and China over the next two weeks.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Moscow next week for a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on August 21, the Russian government said Wednesday.
Sources said the visit is meant to prepare the ground for a possible visit by President Vladimir Putin to India and it could happen as early as mid-September.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, sources said, is expected to visit India on August 18 for the Special Representative-level talks with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. This is the first high-level visit from China after the India-Pakistan hostilities following Operation Sindoor. Delhi said Chinese weapons and drones were used by Pakistan and Beijing helped Rawalpindi with live intelligence during the military confrontation.
The visits are taking place in the run-up to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin in China, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel on August 31-September 1. He will also hold bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit, and this will also provide an opportunity to review the situation along the border and the bilateral relationship.
On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “On August 21, FM Sergey Lavrov will hold talks with FM of India S Jaishankar in Moscow. The Ministers will discuss key issues on our bilateral agenda, as well as key aspects of cooperation within international frameworks.”
This will be their third meeting in the last few weeks – Jaishankar and Lavrov met on the sidelines of the meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers in Tianjin on July 15, and on the margins of the 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6.
In the past few weeks and months, India has engaged with both Russia and China.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Andrey Belousov met on the sidelines of the gathering of SCO Defence Ministers in Qingdao, China, in late June. The leaders discussed the supply of S-400 systems, Su-30 MKI upgrades, and procurement of critical military hardware in expeditious timeframes.
Delhi is following its multi-alignment foreign policy, and will be careful not to become part of an anti-Western grouping. Delhi likes to portray itself as a non-Western, and not an anti-Western country, keeping intact its strategic autonomy.
With China, after the disengagement process was completed along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, NSA Doval, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Rajnath Singh and Jaishankar visited the country.
Wang Yi came to India in 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sources said the meeting between Doval and Wang is expected to cover bilateral ties and the situation along the LAC. De-escalation and de-induction of military troops is the next step, as 50,000 to 60,000 troops are still deployed on each side of the LAC.
The engagement with Russia and China is also significant given that Beijing has been pushing for the Russia-India-China trilateral meeting. Delhi has so far not played ball.
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