External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is expected to visit China in the third week of July, marking a significant diplomatic step as he heads to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ meeting and hold bilateral talks with key Chinese leaders.
This will be Jaishankar’s first visit to China since the India-China military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh in 2020 — a confrontation that pushed relations between the two nations to their lowest point in decades. Although he has met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi several times since the standoff, those meetings have taken place only on the sidelines of multilateral summits. This visit, therefore, is being seen as a move toward more direct engagement and potential thaw in the frosty ties.
Jaishankar is likely to first travel to Beijing to meet with Wang Yi for a bilateral discussion before heading to Tianjin for the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Council meeting, which is scheduled for July 14–15. According to people familiar with the visit, the two ministers are expected to discuss steps to accelerate troop disengagement and restore normalcy along the LAC, as well as other areas of concern, including bilateral trade and people-to-people contact.
Restarting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is seen as a small but positive move, but many important issues are still not resolved. India is still raising concerns about China limiting the export of rare earth minerals, which are important for making modern technology. India has also been pointing out that it continues to face problems in getting fair access to Chinese markets.
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In recent months, both countries have seen a flurry of high-level diplomatic activity. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited China in December and again in June for meetings of the SCO Security Council Secretaries. He also held bilateral talks with Wang Yi in his role as India’s Special Representative for the border issue. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh similarly travelled to China to attend an SCO defence ministers’ gathering, during which he called for a permanent resolution to the border demarcation issue and proposed a structured roadmap for sustained military engagement.
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Jaishankar’s upcoming visit also comes ahead of the SCO summit, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend. If confirmed, it would be his first visit to China since the border tensions began. The foreign ministers’ meeting is likely to lay the groundwork for the summit and will be closely watched to see whether member countries can agree on a joint communique—something that eluded the recent SCO defence ministers’ meeting due to disagreements between India and Pakistan.
During his stay, Jaishankar is also expected to hold bilateral talks with foreign ministers from Russia and Central Asian countries. These meetings are part of India’s broader diplomatic efforts to maintain strong regional ties amid evolving geopolitical dynamics. Although no dramatic breakthroughs are expected from the visit, Jaishankar’s presence in China signals a careful but deliberate effort by both sides to return to dialogue and de-escalation after years of mistrust and silence.
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