China-India vow to resolve border dispute

Chinese FM, Indian Security Adviser hold high level talks amid thaw in ties

BEIJING:

China held rare high-level talks with India on Wednesday at which it stressed the need to "maintain the peace" and seek a "comprehensive solution" to their border disputes.

The meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in Beijing comes amid easing tensions between the giant neighbours.

It is the first such meeting since December 2019 and comes after New Delhi announced an agreement with Beijing in October on patrols in disputed areas.

They had been at a standstill since a deadly clash between soldiers from the two countries in 2020 on the border between Tibet and the Indian region of Ladakh, which left at least 20 dead on the Indian side and four among the Chinese.

Wang and Doval held "substantive discussions", the Chinese foreign ministry said, citing several "points of consensus".

"The two sides agreed to continue to take measures to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas and promote the sound and steady development of bilateral relations," it said.

China and India "will continue to seek a comprehensive solution to the boundary question that is fair, reasonable and acceptable to both sides and take positive measures to promote the process," according to Beijing.

The two officials met within the framework of a bilateral discussion mechanism created in 2003, that of "special representatives" for border issues.

Beijing and New Delhi agreed Wednesday to hold another meeting in India in 2025, the ministry said.

The October deal was announced by India shortly before a rare formal meeting -- the first in five years -- between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a BRICS summit.

The two officials reaffirmed both sides' commitment to seek a package of solutions to the dispute that was fair and acceptable for both, a Chinese foreign ministry statement said. They stressed the need to strengthen routine control and management of the border to maintain peace in the western Himalayan frontier area. Ties between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have been severely strained since June 2020 after hand-to-hand combat in Galwan Valley led to the deaths of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.

The encounter was the deadliest since a brief war between India and China in 1962, also triggered by a dispute at their nearly 3,500 km (2,175-mile) border, known as the Line of Actual Control.

The two sides "emphasised the need to ensure peaceful conditions on the ground," a statement from India's foreign ministry said.

"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."

In the last four years, both sides had deployed tens of thousands of troops and military equipment closer to their contested border in Ladakh, which has become a major flashpoint on the countries' poorly demarcated border. Tensions and distrust between the neighbours have extended to other aspects of bilateral ties, with New Delhi slowing visa approvals for Chinese nationals, banning popular Chinese mobile apps and tightening scrutiny of investments from China.

Wednesday's meeting marked the first formal talks between the two countries' special representatives on border issues since late 2019.