Jaishankar to attend second India-China HLM meeting during visit to Beijing: Ministry of External Affairs

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will co-chair the second meeting of the India-China High-level Mechanism (HLM) on cultural and people-to-people exchanges, during his upcoming visit to the neighboring country, the MEA said on Friday.

"External Affairs Minister is visiting China for the second meeting of India China high-level mechanism on Cultural and people to people exchanges. It is expected that the bilateral issues will come up during the discussion," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said during a press conference here.

The three-day visit from August 11-13 will prepare the ground for the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China had recently objected to the Indian government's decision to abrogate Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, in response to which New Delhi had issued a statement saying that the move was an internal matter concerning the territory of India.

On being asked whether the said matter would be raised during the talks, Jaishankar said, "We have already issued our statement. There is nothing further to act."

During his visit, Jaishankar will hold wide-ranging talks with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the entire gamut of bilateral issues, as well as a regional and global matter of mutual interest.

The Minister met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bangkok last week where both leaders exchanged views on ways and means of further strengthening India-China relations.