China appoints former India envoy as vice-foreign minister | World News

Beijing: Former ambassador Solar Weidong, who till October was Beijing’s envoy to India, has been appointed a vice-foreign minister, state media reported on Tuesday, indicating that the senior Chinese language diplomat will play an vital function in framing China’s insurance policies in South Asia within the years forward.

“Solar Weidong, who had simply completed his 3+ 12 months tenure as Chinese language Ambassador to India, was appointed as deputy overseas minister, based on China’s Ministry of Human Assets and Social Safety,” state-run tabloid World Occasions tweeted on Tuesday night.

Solar’s predecessor Luo Zhaohui was additionally promoted as vice-foreign minister after returning to China in 2019.

Solar, 56, was China’s India ambassador to India from 2019 till 2022, a interval that noticed bilateral ties plunge to their lowest in a long time due to the continuing border stress alongside the Line of Precise Management (LAC) in japanese Ladakh and the Galwan Valley conflict in June 2020.

He had served as counsellor on the Chinese language embassy in New Delhi between 2005 and 2008.

Solar met exterior affairs minister S Jaishankar earlier than returning to China in October when the Indian minister informed him that the normalisation of India-China relations is within the curiosity of the international locations and the area.

Jaishankar informed Solar that the “three mutuals” - mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual curiosity – ought to information Sino-India ties and “peace and tranquillity within the border areas is crucial”.

In his farewell remarks, printed by the Chinese language embassy, Solar didn't make any point out in regards to the ongoing border stress however mentioned it's “solely pure” for 2 international locations to have variations.

“The bottom line is the way to deal with the variations. We ought to be conscious that the widespread pursuits of the 2 international locations are better than variations,” Solar wrote in his remarks.

Days earlier than vacating his place, Solar additionally paid a three-day go to to Bhutan the place he met Bhutanese leaders.

China and Bhutan do not need diplomatic ties and Beijing blames New Delhi for influencing Thimphu’s insurance policies towards Beijing.

Earlier than New Delhi, Solar was the Chinese language ambassador to Pakistan for 3 years.

China is but to call Solar’s successor.

Given Solar’s expertise in South Asia, he's prone to be a key diplomat for the subsequent overseas minister after Wang Yi, who's a state councillor and the present overseas minister, vacates his place in March.

It’s additionally doubtless that Wang is not going to proceed because the particular consultant (SR) for the India-China border talks on condition that he was promoted to the Communist Social gathering of China (CPC) politburo, one of many top-decision making our bodies within the nation, through the nationwide social gathering congress in October.