Defence to figure in PM's Kuwait visit

Bolstering defence and security cooperation will be in focus when Prime Minister Narendra Modi travels to Kuwait on Saturday for the first visit by an Indian premier in more than four decades.

- Rezaul H Laskar

NEW DELHI: India on Friday said it will work with China on steps to take forward the understanding reached by the Special Representatives of the two sides on cross-border cooperation and exchanges, including the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and border trade.

The Special Representatives on the border issue - India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China's foreign minister Wang Yi - met in Beijing on Wednesday for their first formal talks in nearly five years, following an understanding reached by the two sides on October 21 on the disengagement of front-line forces in Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

During these talks, Doval and Wang provided "positive directions for cross-border cooperation and exchanges including resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, data sharing on trans-border rivers and border trade", an Indian readout on the meeting said.

When external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was asked at a regular media briefing to provide details on this development, he said: "It means that the discussions have gone into the positive direction, and thereafter, whatever else is required will be done to take these cross-border exchanges forward."

The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra has not been held since 2020, when the sudden massing of troops by China in Ladakh sector of the LAC triggered a military standoff that saw both sides deploying close to 60,000 troops each in the region. A brutal clash at Galwan Valley in June 2020, which killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops, took bilateral relations to their lowest point in six decades.