Following the Doklam standoff last year, both countries have increased pace and level of dialogue to scale down tensions.
As part of strategy to continue high-level engagements dispute occasional hiccups in the relations, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arrived in Beijing on Saturday, where she will hold talks with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and take part in the foreign ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Last week, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval was in Shanghai to meet top official of China's ruling Communist Party Yang Jiechi. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also visiting China on April 23. She is expected meet her Chinese counterpart Lt Gen Wei Fenghe.
Following the Doklam standoff last year, both countries have increased pace and level of dialogue to scale down tensions. Both sides also held the 11th Joint Economic Group meeting and the fifth Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED).
Swaraj will take part in the foreign ministers' meeting of the eight-member SCO on April 24. She along with other foreign ministers of the group would call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 23, and will leave for Mongolia on April 24. The SCO, in which China and Russia play an influential role, specialises in regional security and counter terrorism and related issues. The organisation is comprised of China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The ministerial meeting will finalise agenda and set tone for SCO summit to be held in the Chinese city of Qingdao in June. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also scheduled to take part in the summit.
Pakistan foreign minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and defence minister Khurram Dastgir Khan will also participate in the ministerial meetings. Officials here stressed that there will be no bilateral meetings between Swaraj or Sitharaman with their Pakistan counterparts. "There will be no meetings with their Pakistan counterparts," they said. Relations between India and Pakistan turned frosty after the Pathankot terror attack in January, 2016 and another strike by terrorists on an Army camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir in September that year.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said that issues related to terrorism will be discussed at the SCO foreign ministers' meeting."We believe it is a purpose of the SCO to promote relevant cooperation in that field. Security has been a priority of the SCO since its inception," she said and defended Pakistan after Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed it as "terror export factory" at an event in London recently.
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 "PM Modi being greeted by Minister Sushma Swaraj")
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