Beijing: India and China’s Special Representatives for the border mechanism, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, met in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss various issues, including managing peace and stability along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and restoring bilateral ties that have been frozen for over four years due to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
Doval, leading the Indian delegation, arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for the 23rd round of the Special Representatives’ talks, held after a five-year gap. The last meeting took place in Delhi in 2019.
The talks, which began at 10 am China time, are expected to cover a range of topics aimed at rebuilding bilateral relations, following the October 21 agreement between the two countries on disengagement and patrolling in eastern Ladakh.
On Tuesday, China expressed optimism about the talks, stating its readiness to work with India to implement the commitments based on the common understandings reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Kazan, Russia, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on October 24.
China is committed to resolving differences with sincerity, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a media briefing when asked about the Special Representatives (SR) talks.
Lin emphasized that China is ready to work with India to implement the key common understandings between their leaders, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, strengthen mutual trust through dialogue, and settle differences with sincerity and good faith. The goal, he added, is to restore bilateral relations to a stable and healthy trajectory as soon as possible.
The two SRs are set to discuss peace and stability in the border areas and seek a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary issue, as agreed upon during the meeting between the two leaders in Kazan.
Following the Modi-Xi meeting, which marked their first interaction in five years, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart also met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil, followed by a session of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on China-India Border Affairs (WMCC).
The military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020, leading to a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in June of that year, which severely strained relations between the two countries. Apart from trade, bilateral relations effectively stalled.
The stand-off came to an end after the completion of disengagement from the last two friction points, Demchok and Depsang, under an agreement finalized on October 21.
The SRs’ meeting is considered significant as it marks the first structured engagement between India and China aimed at restoring relations.
The SR mechanism, established in 2003 to address the complex border dispute spanning 3,488 km, has held 22 rounds of talks over the years. While it has not yet resolved the boundary dispute, officials on both sides consider it a promising and valuable tool for addressing recurring tensions between the two countries.
