Doka La standoff: Ahead of India-China border talks, Beijing says 'lessons must be learnt' to avoid similar situations

Beijing: Ahead of Friday’s India-China border talks, China on Tuesday said that the Doka La standoff posed a “major test” for the bilateral ties and lessons should be learnt from it to avoid a similar “conflict” in the future. The 20th round of border talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and China’s State Councillor Yang Jiechi will be held in New Delhi on 22 December, officials said. The two sides attach significance to this round of talks as it would be the first since the 73-day Doka La standoff in the Sikkim section which ended on 28 August. “This Special Representative meeting is not only a high-level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. [caption id=“attachment_3982113” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] This also allows the two sides to exchange views on the international and regional issues of major concern, she said. “In 2017, China-India relations have maintained a good momentum generally but the Doka La incident posed a major test for the two countries. We should learn lessons from this incident to avoid any further conflict of this kind in the future,” Hua said. “We should follow our historical conventions on the border to uphold the tranquillity and peace in the border region as well as safeguard the larger picture of the India-China relations,” she said, adding that is in the best interest of both the countries. Asked about the Doka La standoff’s impact on the talks, Hua said the issue also figured in the recent visit of Foreign Minister Wang Yi to New Delhi to take part in the foreign ministers’ meeting of Russia, India and China (RIC). On its sidelines, Wang also held talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and President Ram Nath Kovind. Wang in his meeting with Indian counterpart also touched about the Doka La issue, Hua said. Besides attempting to resolve the vexed border dispute, the format of the India-China Special Representatives talks covered the whole gamut of relations between the two countries including political, strategic, economic and trade issues. Yang, China’s top diplomat, has recently been elevated to the politburo, a high ranking policy-making body of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC). The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) covers from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. Of this, 220-km section falls in Sikkim. The two sides so far held 19 rounds of Special Representatives talks to resolve the dispute. Officials say Wang’s visit, the first by a top Chinese official after the Doka La standoff and the starting of the second term of Chinese President Xi Jinping in October facilitated a more candid and frank talks between the two countries to tide over most contentious between the two countries beyond the diplomatic niceties. They said, though a solution to the border dispute still eludes the two countries, a lot of headway has been made in the 19th round of talks in terms of working out mechanisms to restore peace and tranquillity along the border to resolve tensions out of the aggressive patrolling by troops. The Doka La standoff began on 16 June over People’s Liberation Army’s plans to build a road in the area claimed by Bhutan after the Indian troops intervened to stop it as it posed a security risk to Chicken Neck, the narrow corridor connecting India with its North-eastern states. India pointed Sino-Indian differences over the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan in the Sikkim section which is yet to be settled. The standoff ended on 28 August following a mutual agreement between India and China. China, which earlier opened the Nathu La route for Indian pilgrims to visit Kailash and Manasarovar, has closed it after the Doka La standoff and yet to open it.