India and China agreed on six points to resolve the border issue as National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi. Both sides agreed on the need to maintain peace and a commitment to continue seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable package solution to the boundary issue. The consensus points also include cross-border tourism including in areas like Tibet and cross-border river cooperation and Nathu La border trade and resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
This was the first Special-Representative level meet since the flare-up of incidents at the border.
The meeting follows the bilateral between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit held in Kazan last month. It was the first significant breakthough amid the chill that had set in following the clashes in Ladakh’s Galwan — the worst in decades.
Today’s meet was meant to oversee the management of peace at the border and explore a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question”.
At the meet, the two sides agreed to continue to take measures to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas and promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations.
During discussions both SRs also underlined the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas to promote overall development of the India-China bilateral relationship.
They reaffirmed their “commitment to continue seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable package solution to the boundary issue in accordance with the political guidelines agreed upon by the special representatives of the two countries”.
Among other things the two sides also agreed to further refine the management and control rules in the border area, strengthen the building of confidence-building measures, and achieve sustainable peace and tranquility.
The cross-border exchanges and cooperation will be strengthened and Indian pilgrims’ pilgrimage to Kailash-Mansarovar, Tibet, China, cross-border river cooperation and Nathu La border trade will be resumed, the two sides agreed.
India and China have also agreed to hold a new round of special representatives’ meetings in India next year.
The disengagement, finalised in October, saw both India and China pull back troops from the two remaining friction points in Demchok and Depsang, after nearly four years of military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Following the disengagement, both India and China are keen to build on this momentum and re-establish trust. The special representatives’ talks, which are part of a long-established mechanism to address the border dispute, have been convened after a hiatus, with the last meeting held in 2019.