India, China to hold talks in Beijing on Wednesday to restore ties

The special representatives of India and China on border issues will meet in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss the restoration of bilateral ties following the October 21 agreement to disengage troops in eastern Ladakh.

As agreed, director of the office of the central commission for foreign affairs Wang Yi and India's national security adviser Ajit Doval will hold the 23rd meeting of special representatives for the China-India Boundary Question in Beijing on December 18, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian announced in Beijing on Monday.

According to informed sources, Doval will arrive in Beijing on Tuesday to attend the crucial talks, which were expected to provide a way forward for the two countries to normalise the relations.

Constituted in 2003 to comprehensively address the vexed dispute of the India-China border spanning to 3488 kms, the SRs mechanism over the years met 22 times.

The SRs meeting would take place after a gap of five years. The last meeting was held in 2019.

While success eluded it in resolving the boundary dispute, officials on both sides regard it as a very promising, useful and handy tool in addressing the recurring tensions between the two countries.

Except for trade, relations between the two countries were frozen since April 2020 when the Chinese moved large numbers of troops towards the Line of Actual Control, sparking one of the longest military standoffs between the two countries.

Foreign secretary Vikram Misri on October 21 said in Delhi that the agreement was finalised following negotiations over the past several weeks and that it would lead to a resolution of the issues that arose in 2020.

Subsequently, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the agreement on October 22, saying “the two sides have reached resolutions on relevant matters, which China speaks highly of. Going forward, China will work with India to implement these resolutions”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan on October 24 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit during which they endorsed the agreement on patrolling and disengagement along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

They instructed the special representatives for the boundary mechanism to meet to discuss further steps.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil followed by the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on China-India Border Affairs.