Chinese Foreign Minister visits Indian city set to host BRICS Summit
August 12, 2016, 3:58 pm

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) shakes hands with Goa’s Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar in Goa, India, Aug. 12, 2016 [Xinhua]

Wang ended a day-long visit to Goa after meeting the chief minister of the state, Laxmikant Parsekar and other Indian officials involved in preparations for the leaders summit.

Wang is headed to the Indian capital, New Delhi, where he will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj on Saturday. Wang is also expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his India visit.

In Goa, Wang visited two coastal resorts being short-listed as venues for the BRICS meet on October 15-16.

“Goa has a time honoured history, beautiful landscape, rich resources and hardworking people and is one of the most developed states in India. Goa is small, but beautiful. I am sure the BRICS summit will put Goa at an even bigger stage,” Wang said after meeting Chief Minister Parsekar.

“Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi has invited Chinese President Xi to attend the BRICS summit. Now that I am paying a visit to India I have come to the state of Goa to take a look at the venues,” he added.

Responding to questions from journalists on the South China Sea, Wang said, “It is up to India to decide what position to take.”

China has said it will not accept a recent ruling against it by an international tribunal in The Hague on territorial claims in the disputed waters. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called the ruling and the arbitration a “farce”.

Beijing claims 90 per cent of the South China Sea, a maritime region believed to hold a wealth of untapped oil and gas reserves and through which roughly $4.5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have contesting claims on these waters.

The Indian Foreign Ministry had earlier issued a statement saying New Delhi has noted the Hague tribunal ruling.

“As a State Party to the UNCLOS, India urges all parties to show utmost respect for the UNCLOS, which establishes the international legal order of the seas and oceans,” the Indian official statement said.

The US has not signed the UN treaty, the UNCLOS. Both China and India are signatories of the treaty.

Earlier this year, Indian, Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministers had issued a joint statement also saying these disputes should be settled by “parties directly concerned”.

India will host the five BRICS leaders for the 8th BRICS Summit during which they will take stock of recent initiatives of the BRICS Bank.

The world’s biggest emerging economies launched their New Development Bank in Shanghai in July last year.

TBP