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Decoding Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar's tour to Sri Lanka, China and Bangladesh

This dialogue mechanism was agreed to during Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to India in August 2016.

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Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will start a whirlwind tour of neighbouring countries, Sri Lanka, China and Bangladesh, signalling the neighbourhood remains central to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy.

Supervising the first India China Strategic Dialogue on February 22 in Beijing has been the most significant engagements so far. This dialogue mechanism was agreed to during Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to India in August 2016. The mechanism was created to discuss all issues of mutual interest in the bilateral, regional and international domain under one umbrella.

Acknowledging that there are 'friction points' outgoing spokesperson of Ministry of External Affaris (MEA) Vikas Swarup said the dialogue will strive for a holistic view of the relations. "The idea is that through the mechanism of this strategic dialogue, the foreign secretary from our side and his Chinese counterpart can take a holistic view of India-China relations, and see to what extent the two sides can accommodate each other's concerns and interests," he said.

India-China ties have witnessed a strain following Beijing's rigid stand on issues crucial to India, such as membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group and designation of JeM chief and Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN. On Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry also said it has lodged a protest with India for hosting a Taiwanese parliamentary delegation and asked it to deal 'prudently' with Taiwan-related matters.

Jaishankar will also fly to Dhaka on a two-day visit on February 23 at the invitation of Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque. The two Foreign Secretaries will review areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries, including high level visits. Foreign Secretary will start his visit from Sri Lanka on February 18 to discuss possibilities of collaboration and cooperation in a number of sectors including power, highways, airport, hydrocarbon sector, etc. "The visit would help in taking stock on various decisions taken during the meetings between the two leaderships," said Swarup.

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