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India has two major diplomatic engagements next week as it is set to host Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi while External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar heads to Moscow, amid a strain in New Delhi’s ties with the Trump administration over its procurement of Russian crude oil.
According to PTI, Wang is scheduled to visit India on August 18 to hold border talks with NSA Ajit Doval, days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned trip to China to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), authoritative sources said.
Jaishankar is travelling to Moscow on August 20 on a two-day visit to hold crucial talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, and the focus of the trip is likely to be on preparing grounds for President Vladimir Putin’s much awaited trip to India later this year.
The external affairs minister’s trip to Russia comes days after Doval travelled to Moscow and met the President and several top-ranking officials.
India’s continued procurement of crude oil from Russia is likely to figure in Jaishankar’s meetings with Russian leaders.
US President Donald Trump last week issued an executive order slapping an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian goods as a penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil. The additional duties raised the overall tariff on India to 50 percent.
The Chinese foreign minister is visiting India primarily to hold the next round of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary question, authoritative sources said.
