New Delhi: Less than a month after their previous round, India and China met on Thursday (August 29) to “narrow down” their differences on the border standoff during foreign office talks.
India asserted that China agreed to “intensified” contact between the two sides to expedite the resolution of outstanding issues.
The 30th round of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) took place in Beijing. The Indian delegation was led by joint secretary (East Asia) Gouranglal Das, while the Chinese delegation was headed by Hong Liang, director general of boundary and ocean affairs.
This meeting occurred just 29 days after the last round in Delhi, a much shorter interval compared to the previous gaps of four to six months between WMCC meetings.
These two rounds were held in close succession, following back-to-back meetings between the Indian and Chinese foreign ministers on the sidelines of multilateral events in Astana and Vientiane in July of this year.
As per practice, both India and China issued separate press notes, each employing positive descriptors for the atmospherics of the discussions.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that the two sides had an exchange of views about the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to “to narrow down the differences and find early resolution of the outstanding issues”.
“For this, they further agreed for intensified contact through diplomatic and military channels,” it stated.
China’s media readout also referenced “narrowing” differences.
“The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on issues related to the border area, further narrowed the differences, expanded the consensus, agreed to strengthen dialogue and consultation, take care of each other’s reasonable concerns and reach a mutually acceptable solution as soon as possible,” the Chinese foreign ministry statement said according to a machine translation.
Both sides said they would abide by border-related agreements and confidence measures and jointly maintain peace and tranquillity at the LAC.
In addition, the Indian side reiterated that the “restoration of peace and tranquillity and respect for [the] LAC are the essential basis for [the] restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations.”
The frequency of the meetings is notable because Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both expected to attend the BRICS summit in Russia this October. The Russian side reported that Modi reconfirmed his attendance during a phone call with President Vladimir Putin earlier this week.
