Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Friday said that India has to decide whether it wants to support China on the South China Sea dispute.
“It is up to India what position it has to take,” Wang said in response to a question whether he is in India to seek its support on the South China Sea dispute.
Wang, who is on a three-day tour to India , arrived in Goa on Friday morning to hold a meeting with Goa chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar over BRICS summit.
Prior to Wang Yi’s visit, a state-run Chinese daily has warned that India’s focus on the South China Sea will harm its ties with China and create obstacles for Indian businessmen.
“India may want to avoid unnecessary entanglement+ with China over the South China Sea debate during Wang’s visit if the country wishes to create a good atmosphere for economic cooperation, which would include reducing tariffs on made-in-India products exported to China amid the ongoing free trade talk known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership,” the Global Times said in its editorial on Tuesday.
Wang will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday.
Sources said that Wang would try to make efforts to ensure that PM Modi does not join other countries in raising the controversial issue of South China Sea in the G20 summit.
China is extremely worried that several countries, including the United States, may raise the issue during the upcoming G20 summit in early September, after an international tribunal rejected Beijing’s claims over ownership of much of the sea area recently.
The ruling came after Philippines challenged Beijing’s claim over much of the disputed area at a tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas.
Significantly, Wang’s visit also comes just days after Chinese troops “transgressed” the border on land and by air in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand last month.
On whether India will raise the recent incident of transgression in Uttarakhand at the meeting, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, all international, regional and bilateral issues of mutual interest will be discussed.
China also stalled India’s Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) membership bid at the plenary meeting of the 48-nation grouping in June on the ground that it was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
India assumed the chairmanship of BRICS in 2016 and will host the BRICS Summit in Goa on October 15-16 this year.
Sourced from TNN, Featured image courtesy: time.com
