India-China border talks begin in Delhi; Doklam stand-off high on agenda

New Delhi: Several months after the peaceful resolution of the Doklam stand-off, top officials from India and China held formal talks on border-related disputes between the two countries on Friday.

According to ANI, the Indian delegation is being led by National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Yang Jiechi is heading the Chinese side.

Talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi begin in Delhi pic.twitter.com/x6ALvM9qXx — ANI (@ANI) December 22, 2017

The two sides will hold formal negotiations on the boundary issues while also exploring ways to strengthen the strained bilateral ties. 

Today's meeting comes almost four months after the 73-day-long military stand-off at the Doklam plateau in the tri-junction region.

In the 20th round of special representatives talks since the establishment of the Special Representatives (SR) mechanism in 2003, Doval and Jiechi are likely to focus on founding ways to maintain peace and tranquillity along the 4,000-km-long border.

The two representatives will also discuss the Doklam stand-off.

Doval and Jiechi had in past met during the BRICS summit in Xiamen in September.

Reportedly, the decision to hold talks in the connection was taken at a meeting held last week between External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) conference here.

However, the announcement of the meeting was made by MEA on Wednesday.

"At the invitation of Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser and the Special Representative of India on the Boundary Question, Yang Jiechi, State Councillor and Member of the Politburo of Communist Party of China's Central Committee and Special Representative of China on the Boundary Question, will visit India on December 22 to hold the 20th meeting of special representatives," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said during a media briefing.

Kumar averred that the discussions will be focused on the boundary issue, adding "we, of course, attach a lot of importance to this dialogue mechanism."

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying while addressing a media briefing said that the Doklam stand-off had posed a "major test" for bilateral ties.

Hua also stressed that lessons should be learnt from the conflict to circumvent similar situation in the future.

"This special representative meeting is not only a high-level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication," she said.

She further said that the meeting was not only a high-level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication.

"In 2017, China-India relations have maintained a good momentum generally but the Doklam incident posed a major test for the two countries. We should learn lessons from this incident to avoid any further conflict of this kind in the future," she added.

The last round of SRs meeting was held in Beijing in April 2016.

The Doklam standoff began on June 16 over People's Liberation Army's plans to build a road in an area claimed by Bhutan.

The conflict came to an end on August 28 after the tw0 sides agreed to withdraw their respective troops from the Doklam plateau and the Chinese troops stopped building a key road close to India's corridor. 

(With ANI inputs)