External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi would meet on the sidelines of next week's Russia-India-China Foreign Ministers' conference in China amid Beijing's continued blocking of India and other countries' moves to list Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN.
The meeting assumes significance as it will be the first high-level interaction between the two countries after the Pulwama terror attack carried out by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed on February 14.
China, while expressing shock over the incident, reiterated its stand to block moves to list Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee.
The 16th meeting of the Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers would be held at the Chinese city of Wuzhen in the eastern Zhejiang province on February 27, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang announced on Wednesday.
"During this foreign ministers' meeting, the three Foreign Ministers will focus on implementation of our leaders' consensus, and exchange views on major international, regional issues of common concern and deepening trilateral cooperation.
"I am sure this meeting will achieve positive outcomes," Geng said. Besides Swaraj and Wang, the meeting would be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, he said.
Official sources here told PTI that Swaraj and Wang would also meet on the sidelines of the RIC ministers meeting.