Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi may visit India this month

NEW DELHI: A visit to India by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi later this month could be on the cards but there is no finality on it yet, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

There is no official word by the Ministry of External Affairs or the Chinese government on the possible visit.

If the visit takes place, it will be the first trip by a senior Chinese leader to India after the eastern Ladakh standoff between the two countries began in May 2020.

It is learnt that the proposal for the visit came from the Chinese side and Wang also intends to travel to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh as part of a four-nation tour.

Nepal's Kathmandu Post reported on Tuesday that Wang is scheduled to arrive in the Nepalese capital on March 26 on a two-day official visit. It is not clear whether Wang's possible visit to New Delhi will take place after his trip to Kathmandu or before it.

In the last one-and-a-half years, Jaishankar and Wang held several rounds of talks in Moscow and Dushanbe to defuse tensions in eastern Ladakh.