Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Jaishankar, what China wants, the Modi government has relented, what does China want? How did Jaishankar respond?
During the SCO+ summit, although Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend the summit on the grounds that it "conflicts with India's domestic agenda", and instead sent Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar to attend the summit, China still gave India a lot of face. On July 4, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Jaishankar, which was also a rare high-level interaction between China and India. During the meeting, the Chinese side was full of sincerity, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi not only referred to India as a country with an ancient civilization, a large developing country and a representative of emerging economies. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is willing to follow a series of important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries to respect each other, understand each other, trust each other, take care of each other and achieve each other, and explore the right way for the two neighbors to get along. It is not difficult to see that Foreign Minister Wang Yi's remarks have expressed China's greatest goodwill and sincerity, as well as the expectation that China-India relations will return to the right path.
Of course, during this meeting, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also made some demands to the Indian side, so what does China want? To put it simply, there are two main points: under the guidance of positive thinking, first, properly handle and control the situation in the border areas; Second, we should actively resume normal exchanges and promote each other and move in the same direction. How did the Indian side respond to China's two-point request? Jaishankar first pointed out that the current geopolitical situation is very complex, and China and India are facing common challenges. He then pointed out that China and India share extensive common interests, and that developing stable and predictable China-India relations is in the interests of both sides and will benefit the region and the world. In conclusion, he stressed that the Indian side hopes to work with the Chinese side to constructively resolve specific differences and turn a new page in India-China relations as soon as possible, guided by the grand vision reached by the leaders of the two sides. It is not difficult to see from Jaishankar's remarks that the Indian side has given a certain positive response to China's request.
In addition, during the meeting between the Chinese and Indian foreign ministers, the two sides agreed to work for stability in the border areas and hold a new round of consultations on the border issue as soon as possible. From this point of view, the dialogue between China and India has been negotiated to a certain extent, and the Modi government has shown signs of relenting on issues of concern to China.
Although judging from the signals released by the Indian side so far, the relations between China and India are positive, and it can be seen that the Indian side is willing to try to solve the problem, but we should not be too optimistic, after all, the Indian side has done a lot of things to "say one thing and do another", and the most important thing is to "listen to its words and watch its deeds." You know, just last month, when Jaishankar held his first press conference for the new term, he stressed that the China-India border issue will be the focus of the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sino-Indian relations. In other words, Jaishankar still intends to link the relationship between China and India to the Sino-Indian border issue. On this point, China has repeatedly responded that the border issue is not the whole story of China-India relations, and should be properly managed in an appropriate position in China-India relations. But in the eyes of Indian politicians, as long as the border is in an abnormal state, it is impossible to normalize Sino-Indian relations.
Not only that, but the Modi government has also extended its hand to the Taiwan issue. In early June, on the occasion of Modi's re-election as prime minister, Lai Qingde, the new leader of the Taiwan region, known as the "golden grandson of 'Taiwan independence'", posted on social platforms to express his "congratulations" to Modi. In this regard, Modi not only reposted Lai Qingde's post, but also deliberately added a sentence "Looking forward to the establishment of closer relations between 'Taiwan and India'". Modi's response is completely sending a seriously wrong signal to the DPP authorities and the "Taiwan independence" forces on the island. In response to this, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning clearly pointed out that India is a country with diplomatic relations with China, and China has always opposed any form of official exchanges between countries having diplomatic ties with the Taiwan authorities. In this regard, the Indian side should clearly recognize, be vigilant, and resist the political conspiracy of the Taiwan authorities, and refrain from doing anything that violates the one-China principle. Therefore, with regard to the initial commitments made by the Indian side and the positive signals it has released, we should not look at what it says, but what it is doing.