He said the situation on the China-India border was “generally stable” and he urged both sides to abide by consensus reached between them and maintain their peace efforts, according to the statement.

“Focus remains on resolving outstanding issues and ensuring peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” Jaishankar said in a Twitter post, adding that he and Qin had engaged in a “detailed discussion” about the India-China relationship.

The two sat down on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in the coastal Indian state of Goa. Goa became a diplomatic hotspot on Thursday as foreign ministers from SCO members began a series of meetings on the sidelines of the two-day gathering.

The SCO is an eight-nation Eurasian security bloc aimed at counterbalancing Western influence in the region. China and Russia, along with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, were founding members in 2001; India and Pakistan joined in 2017.

The Goa talks are intended to promote multilateralism, regional security and person-to-person interactions among the delegations.

For example, India, the organisation’s 2023 chair, and China remain locked in a tense border dispute in the Himalayas.

It was the second session between Qin and Jaishankar in the past two months; Qin visited India in March for a Group of 20 summit. During that meeting, Jaishankar described India-China relations as “abnormal”.

Last week, the two nations’ defence ministers met in New Delhi on the margins of an SCO conclave. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu that deployment of a large number of Chinese troops and the “violation of existing agreements has eroded the entire basis of bilateral relations”.

Li said the situation was “generally stable”.

China-India ties depend on border peace: Indian defence minister

With Sino-India ties in limbo, China has deepened its engagements with Russia, another SCO member – especially since the latter invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

On Thursday, Qin also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and discussed implementing agreements Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached in Moscow in March.

A statement from the Russian foreign ministry said the two ministers “highly appreciated the dynamics of the development of Russian-Chinese relations against the backdrop of growing geopolitical instability”.

As China-Russia ties assume greater significance – and Beijing gains more leverage over Moscow – India has pivoted towards the US to counter China’s growing influence in the region.

India also remains a leading buyer of Russian oil despite Western sanctions and has refused to condemn Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

After meeting Lavrov on Thursday, Jaishankar said in a Twitter post that they had conducted a “comprehensive review” of “bilateral, global and multilateral cooperation”.

Lavrov described the meeting as a “truth-based exchange of views”, saying that the “ministers praised the dynamics of cooperation in key areas of special and privileged strategic partnership”.

Lavrov also held talks with Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the foreign minister of Pakistan, India’s arch-rival and China’s ally. While India and Pakistan did not hold a meeting on Thursday, the summit drew the first visit to India by a Pakistani foreign minister in 12 years.

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Hina Rabbani Khar, the last top Pakistani diplomat to visit India in 2012, refused to call it an “India visit”.

“This is an SCO visit,” she stressed in an interview last week. “We are not looking at it in a bilateral context.”

The official inauguration of the ministers’ meeting will be held on Friday; member states will discuss regional security issues, including consideration of full-time membership for observer nations Iran and Belarus.