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New Delhi: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Monday (August 18) told visiting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi that India and China must adopt a “candid and constructive” approach to move forward in their relations after a “difficult period”.

Wang, a member of the Communist Party of China’s Politburo, arrived in New Delhi on Monday evening and immediately met Jaishankar.

While Jaishankar’s opening remarks and his post-meeting social media updates made no mention, the Chinese foreign ministry’s Chinese language readout stated that the Indian side had conveyed that “Taiwan is part of China.” The English-language report by China’s state news agency Xinhua also stated that Jaishankar had made this assertion.

There was no official statement from the MEA, but official sources clarified that “there is no change in our position on Taiwan.” They added, “We stressed that, like the rest of the world, India has a relationship with Taiwan focused on economic, technology, and cultural ties, and we intend to continue it”.

The clarification makes it clear that India still does not have political or diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which underpins the one-China policy, even if the phrase itself remains unstated. India and Taiwan have maintained representative offices in each other’s capitals since 1995, with the........

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