EAM Jaishankar briefs Xi Jinping on improvements in bilateral relations

NEW DELHI: During his visit to China, external affairs minister S Jaishankar also called on President Xi Jinping along with other SCO foreign ministers. He later said in a post on X that he apprised Xi about the development of India's bilateral ties with China.

"Conveyed the greetings of President Droupadi Murmu and PM Modi. Apprised President Xi of the recent development of our bilateral ties. Value the guidance of our leaders in that regard," the EAM said.

Jaishankar was on a two-day visit to China, his first since 2019, for the SCO foreign ministers' meeting. During the visit, he also held bilateral meetings with his counterpart Wang Yi and Vice President Han Zheng.

In the meeting with SCO foreign ministers, according to Xinhua, Xi expressed hope about meeting the leaders of other member-states at the upcoming SCO summit in Tianjin and discussing the future development of the SCO.

While India has not yet confirmed participation by Modi, official sources said the government is favourably considering it as the visit will be essentially for a multilateral event and at a time, as Jaishankar said on Monday, there has been good progress in efforts to normalise India-China ties. Modi had skipped participation in the last summit in Kazakhstan.