New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who arrived in Beijing on Saturday evening for a three-day visit, will on Monday hold rare talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Officials told India Today that the Chinese President will meet Swaraj on Monday afternoon at the Great Hall of the People, the expansive Chinese Parliament building in Beijing where foreign heads of state are usually welcomed.
It is not a very frequent occurrence, officials said, that Xi meets foreign ministers from overseas who are usually granted an audience with the second-ranked premier or other leaders from the elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee.
Swaraj's visit has taken on significance in the wake of US President Barack Obama's recently-concluded India visit, which saw India and US announce for the first time a joint strategic vision for Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean. The vision expresses both the countries' concerns over the South China Sea dispute-an issue considered sensitive for China.
Beijing, this week, reiterated its position that it believed the dispute was only for the parties directly concerned to resolve.
Officials, however, said Xi's meeting with Swaraj was being discussed even before Obama's visit to India, so was not related to this week's developments in India. Swaraj's visit is expected to lay the ground work for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to China, set to take place in the first half of this year.
Swaraj will begin her visit on Sunday by launching a Media Forum between Chinese and Indian journalists. Later in the afternoon, she will hold bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in the Chinese Capital.
On Monday, Swaraj will attend the Russia-India-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting, which will send a signal that despite India's deepening of ties with Washington, it will continue with a multi-aligned foreign policy and bolster its relations with China and Russia- countries that have particularly tense relations with the US.
