PANAJI, INDIA (AP) – India’s foreign minister held talks yesterday with counterparts from China and Russia ahead of a meeting of a Central Asian security forum.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said he had detailed discussions with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on bilateral ties. “Focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquility in the border areas,” he tweeted after the meeting.
Jaishankar also said he had a “comprehensive review of bilateral, global and multilateral cooperation” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Analysts say India is likely to be concerned over Russia’s growing reliance on China as the war in Ukraine drags on. New Delhi’s relationship with Moscow has remained strong.
Foreign ministers from the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security pact dominated by Moscow and Beijing, arrived in the Indian tourist hotspot of Goa, where they are expected to discuss deepening economic and security cooperation in the region on Friday.
A summit of SCO leaders is to be held in July.
Jaishankar held talks with the SCO’s secretary general, Zhang Ming yesterday and was also expected to speak with Uzbekistan’s foreign minister. Russia and China founded the SCO in 2001 as a counterweight to United States alliances across East Asia to the Indian Ocean.
The group includes the four Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
