In first meeting since 2019, Special Representative Doval, Wang ‘positively confirm’ disengagement process

India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of a scheduled meeting in Beijing on Wednesday (December 18, 2024). | Photo credit: PTI

India and China have “positively confirmed” the outcome of their disengagement agreement on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), National Security Adviser Ajit Doval said in Beijing on Wednesday when he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi for the first border talks between the Special Envoys (LAC). SR) from 2019 onwards.

During the talks, Mr Doval and Mr Wang said it was important to learn “lessons from the lessons” of the four-year-long military standoff in the LAC to maintain peace and tranquility along the border. They also discussed other ties derailed by border disputes, resuming the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage from India to Tibet, sharing data on transboundary rivers, and providing “positive direction” for cross-border exchanges. business

Notably, in a statement issued after the talks, the SRs did not mention the resumption of direct flights and restoration of press exchanges, which were discussed when Mr Wang met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Rio de Janeiro last month. . However, after a meeting in Beijing between Mr Doval and Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, an official readout stressed the need to restore exchanges in the “economic, cultural and trade” areas.

keep the peace

“This was the first meeting of the SRs since the friction in the western areas of the Indo-China border area emerged in 2020. The SRs positively confirmed the implementation of the latest disengagement agreement of October 2024, resulting in patrolling and grazing in the respective areas,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. said in a statement issued after the meeting, referring to the disconnection. Verification process at Depsang and Demchok in Eastern Ladakh.

“Drawing on the lessons learned from the events of 2020, they discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquility along the border and advance effective border management,” the MEA statement said, “underscoring the importance” of peace and tranquility in the LAC so that the issues along the border are “concerned with the normal development of bilateral relations”. Stop the “.

Finding Boundary Solutions

The resumption of the SRs process, which began in 2003 to work towards a satisfactory solution to the decades-long India-China border dispute, is a major step towards restarting the diplomatic mechanisms that have stalled for the past few years. Mr Doval last met Mr Wang in Delhi in December 2019, four months before the Chinese military massed and breached the LAC in clashes with Indian troops. This eventually led to the deadly Galwan clash, the first casualty between the two armies in over four decades.

After the October 21 agreement signaled an agreement to defuse the last of the seven friction points along the LAC, officials said they needed to work further on de-escalation and de-induction of troops. The agreement paved the way for the first formal talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who praised the dispute between Delhi and Beijing.

Mr Doval and Mr Wang, who also met in Moscow earlier this year, were tasked with holding an SR meeting at an early date to “oversee the management of peace and tranquility in the border region and explore the fair”. There is a reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the border issue,’ the statement said. Mr. Doval also invited Mr. Wang to visit New Delhi for the next round of SR talks.

‘Restoring political trust’

Doval, who reached Beijing on Tuesday, also met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. According to a readout cited by official agencies, Mr. Han said that as “ancient civilizations and emerging global powers,” India and China’s relationship has global influence and strategic importance. Both sides should “restore political trust and promote cooperation in the economic, trade and cultural fields, thereby ensuring stable development in their bilateral relations,” he said.

According to Readout, Mr. Doval had replied, resuming SR talks after a gap of five years was important, and India was committed to “strengthening strategic engagement with China” and injecting new momentum into the relationship. However, the MEA did not release any reading of the NSA’s talks with the Chinese Vice President.