India-China talks yield broad breakthroughs

NEW DELHI: India and China on Tuesday unveiled a slew of initiatives to address their border dispute and normalise bilateral ties in the wake of the LAC standoff, ranging from steps to explore an “early harvest” in boundary delimitation to resumption of direct flights and facilitation of trade and investment flows.

- Rezaul H Laskar

The measures were announced following visiting Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's talks with National Security ‘Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval under the Special Representatives mechanism and his meeting with external affairs minister S Jaishankar, and came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to China at the end of this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. The Prime Minister confirmed his presence in Tianjin after meeting Wang on Tuesday evening

Both Doval and Wang pointed to steady progress in bilateral relations and easing of tensions on the border after the understanding last October to end the face-off on the Line of Actual Control, reflecting the growing thaw in ties amid geo-economic churn caused by the trade policies of the US administration.

‘At the meeting of the Special Representatives, the two sides agreed to create an expert group under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs to explore “early harvest in boundary delimitation", and to set up another working group under the WMCC to "advance effective border management" and maintain peace and tranquillity, the external affairs ministry said in a statement.

The two sides will create "general level mechanisms" for the eastern and middle sectors of the border, which cover Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim, respectively. These will be in addition to the existing general level mechanism for the western sector, which covers Ladakh, the scene of the standoff which lasted well over four years. The two sides also agreed to hold an early meeting of the mechanism for the western sector.

The two sides further agreed to use diplomatic and military mechanisms to carry forward border management and discuss de-escalation, beginning with principles and modalities, the statement said.