New Delhi: India and China Wednesday “underlined” the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility on the border, while also maintaining a political perspective of the overall ties between the two countries.
After a meeting between the special representatives, Indian National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on the boundary question, a readout published by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, “The SRs reiterated the importance of maintaining a political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship while seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for settlement of the boundary question, and resolved to inject more vitality into this process.”
The two met in Beijing for the first time since the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes.
“Both SRs underlined the importance of maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas to promote overall development of the India-China bilateral relationship. They emphasised the need to ensure peaceful conditions on the ground so that issues on the border do not hold back the normal development of bilateral relations,” said the readout.
“Drawing on the learnings from the events of 2020, they discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border and advance effective border management,” it added.
Wang Yi, it said, however pushed for discussions around the boundary question to be placed at the “appropriate position” in bilateral ties, while pushing for the opening of commercial ties between the two countries. It did not elaborate what this position would be.
According to the Indian statement, Doval maintained that peace and tranquility in the border is essential for discussions on other areas of the bilateral relationship.
The Chinese embassy in New Delhi has been pushing for the restarting of direct commercial flights between the two countries and issuance of more visas by New Delhi for Chinese citizens.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, India has restricted direct flights between the two countries. This measure was extended after the military clashes in Galwan.
In a release by Beijing, which finds no mention in the Indian readout, the Chinese side claimed that there was a consensus on “six” points which included Indian pilgrims visit to Kailash Mansarovar yatra and that the border issues should be ”properly handled” in a manner which would not affect bilateral relations.
India has been pushing for the restart of the Kailash Mansarovar yatra, which has remained suspended since the COVID-19 pandemic. The special representatives “provided a positive direction” in regards to this issue according to the Indian statement.
On 21 October, the two countries came to an agreement to disengage at friction points, which eventually led to a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan on 23 October.
The two leaders agreed to restart discussions between the special representatives as a part of the normalisation of bilateral ties.
Doval also later called on the Vice President Han Zheng.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)