Borders remain calm as NSA Doval, Wang Yi hold India-China talks

The dialogue comes ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to China for the SCO Summit later this month

New Delhi: There has been an “upward trend” in India-China relations in the past nine months as peace and tranquillity prevailed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), National Security Adviser Ajit Doval said on Tuesday during his talks on the boundary issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Doval and Wang held the talks under the framework of Special Representatives (SR) mechanism that came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned visit to China to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

---

In his televised opening remarks, the NSA recalled his visit to Beijing in December last for the previous round of SR talks and said there has been an “upward trend” in the ties between the two sides since then.

“Borders have been quiet, there has been peace and tranquillity, our bilateral engagements have been more substantial,” he said. Doval also formally announced that Modi will visit China to attend the SCO Summit, to be held in Tianjin on August 31 and September 1 and noted that the Special Representatives talks have assumed a “very special importance” in view of the trip.

The NSA also made a mention of the talks between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of a multilateral event in the Russian city of Kazan in October last year, adding that both sides benefited a lot since then.

“The new environment that has been created has helped us in moving ahead in the various areas that we were working on,” Doval said. The Modi-Xi meeting took place two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for the remaining two friction points of Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh.

The two leaders had decided to revive several mechanisms, including talks between the Special Representatives, to normalise bilateral ties. In his remarks, the Chinese foreign minister said the two sides should “increase mutual trust through strategic communication, expand common interest through exchanges and cooperation, and properly settle the specific issues” along the borders. “We are heartened to see the stability that is now restored in the borders,” he said.

“Now the bilateral relationship is facing an important opportunity of improvement and growth. The Chinese side attaches great importance to the prime minister’s visit to China to attend the SCO Summit at our invitation,” he said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister landed in Delhi on Monday on a two-day visit. Wang’s visit is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.

In the SR talks, both sides were expected to deliberate on new confidence-building measures besides reviewing the overall situation along the LAC. Though the two sides disengaged troops from the friction points, they are yet to de-escalate the situation by pulling back the frontline forces from the border.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the eastern Ladakh region. The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020 and the clashes at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in bilateral ties.

The face-off effectively ended following completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year. In the last few months, the two sides also initiated a number of initiatives to rebuild the ties that included resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and New Delhi restarting issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals.