New Delhi: The “positive and constructive” 33rd session of foreign office-led border talks between India and China held in Beijing on Tuesday (March 25) saw both sides discuss ways to implement decisions taken during the high-level Special Representatives’ meeting late last year.
Special Representatives Ajit Doval – India’s national security adviser – and Wang Yi – China’s foreign minister – had met in Beijing in December and agreed to move forward on normalising relations by resuming pilgrimages, cross-border trade and data-sharing for transboundary rivers.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) noted that Monday’s talks – the 33rd edition of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) – were “positive and constructive”, while Beijing in its separate readout added that either side had adopted a “forward-looking” stance.
Both sides “agreed to maintain and strengthen relevant diplomatic and military mechanisms” towards implementing these decisions, the MEA said.
China also mentioned that both sides “agreed to take practical and effective measures to continue to maintain peace and tranquility in the China-India border areas”.
They agreed to prepare for the next meeting of the WMCC, which the MEA noted will take place in India.
India’s delegation during Monday’s talks was led by the MEA’s joint secretary for east Asia Gourangalal Das and China’s by Hong Liang. director general of the boundary and oceanic affairs department of the foreign affairs ministry.
Monday’s talks were held against the backdrop of a thaw in bilateral ties that occurred when India and China struck a deal last year to disengage their troops from two friction points in eastern Ladakh, which in turn gave way to the first bilateral meeting in five years between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping years in October.
Following the bilateral meeting and the subsequent Special Representatives’ meet in December, India and China also agreed to resume direct flights, the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage that takes place in Tibet as well as data sharing on trans-boundary rivers during a meeting between the Indian foreign secretary and a Chinese vice foreign minister in January.
While China is understood be keen to resume direct flights soon, the MEA’s readout did not mention the resumption of the flights.
In a reflection of the changing state of ties – which had nosedived after deadly clashes between troops on either side in eastern Ladakh in 2020 – Modi said he felt that after his meeting with Xi, “trust, enthusiasm and energy” would return to the bilateral relationship.
“Our being together is not only beneficial but is necessary for global stability and prosperity,” said Modi in a podcast interview to Lex Fridman.
He acknowledged that India and China had disagreements over their border but said that the focus was on ensuring that mutual differences “do not turn into disputes”.
Beijing “appreciated” Modi’s comments, saying that a “cooperative pas de deux [a ballet dance] of the dragon and the elephant is the only right choice for both sides”.
