India and China had reached an agreement in October on patrolling arrangements in the Depsang Plains and Demchok, two friction points along the LAC
Our Bureau
New Delhi/Beijing
In an important move, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will visit Beijing on January 26 and 27 for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between India and China. Ministry of External Affairs said in a release that the resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains.
The visit comes just days after Donald Trump assumed the president’s office in the US.
India and China had reached an agreement in October on patrolling arrangements in the Depsang Plains and Demchok, two friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The understanding was reached after earlier disengagement in other friction points in eastern Ladakh following meetings at diplomatic and military levels.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his remarks in Parliament in December last year that the conclusion of disengagement has set the bilateral ties “in the direction of some improvement”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit at Kazan on October 23, 2024. PM Modi had welcomed the agreement for complete disengagement and resolution of issues that arose in 2020 in the India-China border areas and underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquility.
The two leaders agreed that the Special Representatives on the India-China boundary question will meet at an early date to oversee the management of peace and tranquility in border areas and to explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question.
The two leaders had also affirmed that stable, predictable, and amicable bilateral relations between India and China, as two neighbors and the two largest nations on earth, will have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity.
The two leaders had underlined the need to progress bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, enhance strategic communication and explore cooperation to address developmental challenges.
Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China NSA Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, met in Beijing on December 18 last year.
Recently, a few eyebrows were raised when Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi apprised about the situation at Line of Actual Control (LAC), saying that the situation was “stable but sensitive”. When asked about the situation at the LAC, Gen. Dwivedi had said, “It is stable but sensitive. There have been a series of meetings. Even the Prime Minister has met the Chinese head.”
The Army chief further said that from April 20 onwards, both sides had moved forward and stopped the other side from going to the traditional areas of Depsang and Demchok in Ladakh, where they were carrying out the patrolling.
The Army chief informed that some places were declared as a “temporary moratorium” amid the discussions during the violence. Gen Dwivedi said that both sides will refrain from visiting the common areas as there are chances that the “violence level” might increase.
“Where you feel that the nature or the degree of violence can be high and the fuse is short, you create some distances. So, when we carried out these negotiations over a period of time, some places were declared as a temporary moratorium. It means that both sides will remain back and will not go to the common areas because we still feel that if we meet at those places the violence level may go high,” he added.
The trust between India and China has a new definition, Gen Dwivedi said, adding that there was a need to come to a broader understanding in order to calm the situation and restore the trust.
“After April 20, the trust between the two countries has to have a new definition. Therefore, there is a requirement for us to sit together and thereafter come to a broader understanding of how we want to calm down the situation and restore trust. We are now looking forward to the next special representatives meeting which should take place,” Dwivedi said.
