New Delhi: After two back-to-back meetings between their foreign ministers, India and China held their latest round of foreign-office led border talks on Wednesday (July 31).
While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called the discussion “constructive”, there is no sign of a breakthrough having occurred.
In the last one month, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi have met twice on the sidelines of multilateral summits in Astana and Vientiane.
While their public statements have not indicated any change in their positions, the frequency of their meetings has raised speculation of an thaw.
Wednesday’s talks took place as part of the 30th round of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs in New Delhi.
This is the first time the WMCC has met in India following deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh in 2020, following which bilateral ties between the two countries soured.
In its press release, the MEA said the “discussion at the meeting was in-depth, constructive and forward-looking”.
Significantly, it stated that that both agreed to “maintain the momentum through the established diplomatic and military channels”.
They also “reviewed the current situation along the [LAC] with a view to finding an early resolution of the outstanding issues”, the MEA said.
It added that they “agreed on the need to jointly uphold peace and tranquility on the ground in the border areas in accordance with relevant bilateral agreements, protocols and understandings reached between the two governments.”
The Chinese foreign ministry stated that based on the “important consensus” reached by the recent meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers, the two sides agreed to “focus on specific issues related to the China-India border, take care of each other’s reasonable concerns, and reach a solution acceptable to both sides as soon as possible”.
The press note further stated that the two sides agreed to “strengthen the construction of negotiation mechanisms, accelerate the negotiation process, and achieve a turning point in the border situation as soon as possible”.
Following the 29th WMCC meet in Beijing in March, the MEA said the two sides discussed their views on achieving “complete disengagement” along the LAC, while China characterised the meeting’s agenda as promoting the “transition of the border situation into a normalised phase of control”.
Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged from some places along the LAC after the 2020 clashes, but the Chinese have refused to undertake any disengagement at two places, where soldiers of both sides continue to block each other.
India’s position is that bilateral ties cannot return to normalcy until the border issue is resolved, while China maintains that the border issue should not overshadow their broader relationship.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar reiterated this view when he met his Chinese opposite number Wang Yi in Laos last week.
East Asia joint secretary of the MEA, Gourangalal Das, represented the Indian delegation during Wednesday’s meeting, and the Chinese side was represented by Hong Liang, director-general of the Chinese foreign ministry’s Boundary and Oceanic Department.
The first round of talks under the WMCC was held in 2012.
The two sides have also participated in corps commander-level talks since the 2020 clashes to discuss the return to the status quo ante at the LAC, though without success.