China may have backed all-weather ally Pakistan at the UN Security Council to help the latter get a face-saver back home but the effort to drag in the UN was an expectedly unsuccessful one. 

New Delhi: China may have tried to save face for Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council, and there's no doubt that the effort failed. But about the same time, in Beijing, Indian and Chinese defence ministry and armed forces officials were meeting and working towards closer ties.

The Joint Working Group in Beijing happened right after the meeting between Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister and S Jaishankar, the external affairs minister, and several major issues were looked at. They included:

* The likely visit of Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh to China towards the end of the year.
* The India-China defence dialogue, to be held later this year, in India. It is likely to be headed by the Indian defence secretary and his Chinese equivalent.
* Border management, a thorny issue
* Greater maritime cooperation, including an increased number of port calls
* Plans to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and China.

The meeting, a preliminary one, was at the level of joint secretary and the Indian delegation included a brigadier and equivalent officers from the Navy and Air Force. It was a meeting to firm up issues for bigger events in the future and was kept low-key deliberately.