An Indian delegation is likely to travel to China for a candid exchange of views on bilateral ties, which hit a particular low after Beijing denied permission to a senior Indian Army officer to travel there because he was posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
However, New Delhi would not offer comment on the likelihood of the talks.
The visit, if it takes place, would have come after the Cabinet committee on security met here Tuesday to take stock of the Sino-Indian relations. India’s ambassador to China, S. Jaishankar, was understood to have briefed the committee about recent developments.
Chinese ambassador to India, Zhang Yan, was called in to the external affairs ministry on August 27 and conveyed India’s displeasure over China’s refusal to go ahead with the visit by Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal, the chief of Indian Army’s northern command.
The envoy met Gautam Bambawale, joint secretary (east Asia) in the ministry, but sources had insisted that their meeting had nothing to do with the row over denial of permission to the officer.
New Delhi had retaliated by putting the defence exchanges on hold until issues had been clarified. Also, it did not issue visas to two captains and one senior colonel of the Chinese armed forces who were to visit India. The issue of stapled visas to Indian nationals living in J&K, Chinese infrastructure projects in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), and the sale of two new Chinese nuclear reactors to Pakistan, have all added to the unease in the Sino-Indian ties.
National security adviser Shivshankar Menon visited Beijing as special envoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July. That visit was preceded by President Pratibha Patil’s in May.