China Appoints Sun Weidong as New Vice Foreign Minister

(The Quiver): Sun Weidong, who until recently served as China’s ambassador to India, has been named vice minister of foreign affairs.

According to sources, after spending more than three years in New Delhi, Sun got appointed recently as vice foreign minister.

Sun, who was known as an authority on India inside the Chinese Foreign Ministry, also held the position of Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan before to his appointment to India.

Due to continued border tension the line of actual control (LAC) in the eastern Ladakh and the Galvan Valley conflict in June 2020, he served as China’s ambassador to India from the period of 2019 to 2022.

This was the phase when the bilateral ties reached its lowest point in decades.

From 2005 to 2008, he served as counsellor at the Chinese embassy in New Delhi.

The “three mutuals” – mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest – should govern Sino-Indian relations, who also stressed the importance of maintaining peace and tranquilly along the border. External affairs minister of India S Jaishankar said.

He is most likely to play a significant diplomatic role for the incoming foreign minister after Wang Yi, the present one and a state councilor, steps down in March.