India’s NSA Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. (File photo)
Indian National Security Agency Director Ajit Doval will visit Beijing from December 17 to 18 to hold SR (Special Representative) level talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on border issues. This marks the resumption of SR-level talks between India and China, which was the consensus reached during the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan.
In fact, special representatives of the two countries will meet here on Wednesday to discuss the resumption of bilateral relations after the October 21 agreement on the withdrawal of Indian and Chinese troops from eastern Ladakh. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Monday that India’s NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold China-India SR-level talks on December 18. This will be the 23rd meeting of the special representatives on China-India border disputes.
It is understood that Ajit Doval will arrive here on Tuesday (today) for talks that are expected to provide a way forward for the normalization of relations between the two countries. This special representative mechanism has held 22 meetings in the past few years to resolve the India-China border dispute. This mechanism was established in 2003.
This special representative meeting was held after a gap of five years. The last meeting was held in 2019. Although it did not succeed in resolving the border dispute, officials from both sides viewed it as a very promising, useful and easy tool to resolve recurring tensions between the two countries.
Relations between the two countries have been frozen since China sent a large number of troops to the Line of Actual Control in April 2020, leading to the longest military standoff between the two countries. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said in Delhi on October 21 that the agreement had been finalized after negotiations over the past few weeks and would address issues raised in 2020.
Subsequently, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the agreement on October 22, saying that the two sides had reached a solution to the relevant matters. China will work with India to implement these recommendations.
On October 24, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS leaders’ meeting and supported the agreement to disengage in eastern Ladakh and patrol the Line of Actual Control. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Brazil, followed by a meeting of the China-India Consultation and Coordination Working Mechanism on Border Affairs.
