NSA Doval to visit China for special representatives dialogue with Wang Yi this week

India and China will resume the Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary issue after a gap of five years, with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval leading the Indian delegation. The talks will take place in Beijing on Wednesday, December 18.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced that the dialogue would focus on maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas while exploring a “fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable” resolution to the boundary dispute. Doval will meet with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, who is the Chinese Foreign Minister and a member of the Communist Party's Political Bureau. This will be the 23rd meeting of the SRs.

The last round of SR talks was held in December 2019, and the mechanism was suspended due to the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The tensions peaked with a deadly clash in Galwan Valley in June 2020, severely affecting bilateral relations. However, after India and China reached a disengagement agreement for the Demchok and Depsang regions in October, the leaders agreed to revive the SR dialogue.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the renewal of dialogue mechanisms during their meeting in Kazan in October. Modi emphasized the importance of handling differences constructively to ensure peace along the border.

India has made it clear that normalizing relations with China depends on peace in the border areas, and the country will not tolerate any attempts to alter the status quo unilaterally.