Eleven months after the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh led to a steep slide in bilateral ties with China in 2017 and a two-and-half month standoff at Doklam, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s note to skip functions of the Tibetan leadership in exile is a reflection of India’s cautious approach towards Beijing as it embarks on the task of mending fences with its northern neighbour.
The Foreign Secretary’s note to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha on February 22, came a day before he flew down to Beijing and held talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, and called on Foreign Minister Wang and State Councillor Yang Jiechi.
This was the first bilateral stand-alone visit by the Indian Foreign Secretary after a year then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited Beijing in February last year. Many believe that the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh from April 4 to 12 last year had provoked Beijing to take diplomatic and military moves that impacted the relationship adversely through much of 2017. Gokhale was India’s ambassador to Beijing in 2017, and had been consistently dealing with the China’s hardening of position on all major issues confronting the two countries.

Eleven months after the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh led to a steep slide in bilateral ties with China in 2017 and a two-and-half month standoff at Doklam, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale’s note to skip functions of the Tibetan leadership in exile is a reflection of India’s cautious approach towards Beijing as it embarks on the task of mending fences with its northern neighbour.
The Foreign Secretary’s note to Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha on February 22, came a day before he flew down to Beijing and held talks with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, and called on Foreign Minister Wang and State Councillor Yang Jiechi.
This was the first bilateral stand-alone visit by the Indian Foreign Secretary after a year then Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had visited Beijing in February last year. Many believe that the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh from April 4 to 12 last year had provoked Beijing to take diplomatic and military moves that impacted the relationship adversely through much of 2017. Gokhale was India’s ambassador to Beijing in 2017, and had been consistently dealing with the China’s hardening of position on all major issues confronting the two countries.