NSA Doval to meet Wang Yi in Beijing today to rebuild India-China ties after Ladakh standoff

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Tuesday to participate in the India-China Special Representatives’ talks set to take place on Wednesday.

The talks aim to revive bilateral relations that have been stalled for over four years due to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.

Doval is scheduled to hold the 23rd round of Special Representatives (SR) talks with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The discussions are expected to cover a wide range of issues, with a focus on rebuilding ties following the October 21 agreement on disengagement and patrolling in eastern Ladakh between the two nations.

Ahead of the crucial talks, China expressed its readiness to collaborate with India to implement commitments based on the common understandings reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during their meeting in Kazan, Russia, on October 24, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian, when asked about the SR talks, emphasised that China is prepared to address differences with sincerity.

“China is ready to work with India to implement the important common understandings between the leaders of China and India, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, strengthen mutual trust through dialogue and communication, properly settle differences with sincerity and good faith, and bring bilateral relations back to the track of stable and healthy development as soon as possible,” PTI quoted Lin as saying.

The Ministry of External Affairs announced on Monday that, as agreed during the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan on October 23, the two Special Representatives (SRs) will discuss the management of peace and tranquility in the border areas and work towards a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary issue.

Following the Modi-Xi meeting, which was their first in five years, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart held discussions on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil, followed by a meeting 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, followed by a deadly clash in Galwan Valley in June that year, severely straining ties between the two neighbors. Apart from trade, bilateral relations came to a virtual standstill.

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The standoff came to an effective end after the disengagement process was completed at the last two friction points, Demchok and Depsang, under an agreement finalized on October 21.

Wednesday’s SRs’ meeting is considered significant as it marks the first structured engagement between the two countries aimed at restoring bilateral relations.

This meeting follows a five-year gap, with the last SRs meeting held in 2019 in Delhi.

Established in 2003 to address the long-standing India-China border dispute spanning 3,488 km, the SRs mechanism has met 22 times over the years. While it has not yet succeeded in resolving the boundary dispute, officials from both sides view it as a promising and effective tool for addressing recurring tensions between the two nations.

With inputs from agencies