Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar today held talks with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi ahead of a key strategic dialogue tomorrow to improve bilateral ties hit by Chinese reluctance to support India's admission into the NSG and back a United Nations ban on JeM leader Masood Azhar. Jaishankar, who arrived in China from Sri Lanka, met Yang, who besides being the State Councillor is Beijing's Special Representative for border talks between India and China. Jaishankar is expected to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, besides attending an upgraded strategic dialogue with China's Executive Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui tomorrow. Officials say the strategic dialogue will cover the whole gamut of bilateral ties. Officials say Jaishankar's talks here in the next two days were expected to set the tone for bilateral ties this year.

Source: dna February 21, 2017 14:15 UTC