Top officials of India and China have agreed to work on identifying less contentious sections of their contested border for delimitation as part of a broader process toward resolving their longstanding boundary dispute.
A special group of negotiators will identify these less disputed parts of the border and delimit them, a joint statement released on August 26 said. The statement came a day after India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for talks. Doval and Wang are the designated special representatives of their two countries for the boundary talks mechanism, which was established in 2003 to address the border dispute.
At the talks in Beijing, India and China also agreed to two new military hotlines in the eastern and middle sections of their border and two new meeting points for military commander-level interactions to immediately deal with any tensions that arise along their 3,500 km-long border. Officials of the two countries will meet next month to discuss issues related to trans-border rivers as they look to take their relationship forward after ties sank to a six-decade low during the June 2020 Galwan clash.
“The two sides agreed that any situation on the ground would be addressed promptly through existing diplomatic and military channels,” the statement, which listed eight outcomes, said. The emphasis was on stabilizing the border and ensuring that any tensions that surface are defused before they impact the larger relationship.
