• External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to have back-to-back meetings with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the margins of the G20 foreign ministers meeting on Thursday.
• Jaishankar will meet Blinken first at 11:30 am at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre, followed by a meeting with Qin at noon.
• The meetings assume significance in view of continuing US-China tensions and the dragging military standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the Ladakh sector of the LAC.
• The meeting with Blinken will be an opportunity to review progress in bilateral relations and to discuss regional and international issues such as the Ukraine crisis and the situation in the Indo-Pacific.
• At the meeting with Qin, Jaishankar is expected to reiterate India’s stated position that only the disengagement of frontline troops on the LAC and the restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas can lead to the normalization of bilateral relations.
• Jaishankar is also expected to hold several other bilateral meetings on Thursday with counterparts from G20 countries and the nine guest countries attending the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting.
