(TibetanReview.net, Mar26’22) – Seven activists of the Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for a Free Tibet were briefly detained on Mar 25 after they protested in front of Hyderabad House in New Delhi where visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with India’s Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar. The two sides stuck to their disagreement on the need to resolve their border issue and Wang did not get to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as sought.
The activists had previously protested in front of the New Delhi airport with placards reading “Wang Yi, you are not welcome!”
In front of Hyderabad House, the protesters carried placards with slogans such as “Wang Yi Free Tibet Now,” “Remember the Galwan incident”, “Tibet’s Independence, India’s independence”, “Free Tibet, Save World” and “Wang Yi, go back!” noted news9live.com Mar 25.
Wang’s unannounced visit ended with both the sides sticking to their positions.
Wang advocated “putting the differences on the border issue in the proper place in bilateral relations”, and pursuing instead more cooperation and mutual development in each other’s countries, thehindu.com Mar 25 quoted India’s Ministry of External Affairs statement as saying.
But there can be no normality in India-China ties unless the troops amassed at the Line of Actual (LAC) Control are withdrawn, Jaishankar has told his Chinese counterpart during their three-hour talks which ended without any joint statement or agreement on the way forward.
Wang, who had arrived on Mar 24, previously met with India’s National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval for an hour in the morning. Their meeting had a “broad and substantive agenda” and talks were “open and candid”, Jaishankar was cited as saying of the meeting in his media briefing.
“If you ask me, is our relationship normal today, my answer to you is no it is not, and it cannot be normal if the situation in the border areas is abnormal. Surely the presence of a large number of troops there, in contravention of agreements (from 1993 to 1996 on maintaining the status quo), is abnormal,” Mr. Jaishankar has said.
The report also cited sources as saying Mr Wang invited Mr Doval to visit China for talks of Special Representatives on the broader resolution of the India-China boundary, but the latter has said he could visit only “after immediate issues are resolved successfully”.
Wang was stated to have proposed a 3-point approach that he said would allow India and China to together promote peace and stability in the region and also the entire world. These included adopting a long-term vision of ties and putting the border issue at an appropriate place, view each other’s development with a win-win mindset and participate in multilateral processes with a cooperative attitude, reported the timesofindia.com Mar 26.