Sino-india talks on for elusive solution to border question

BEIJING: It is kind of symbolic that visiting Indian national security advisor AK Doval and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will visit Mount Qingcheng near Chengdu city in southwest China after the 21st round of Sino-india border talks on Saturday.

The 4,000-ft mountain is closely associated with Taoism, a set of ancient beliefs and philosophy recognised as a religion in China – importantly, it believes in unity between opposites, the complementarity of the Yin and the Yang and the harmonious existence between light and dark.

India and China have been searching for that elusive harmony in their bilateral ties, which are heavily burdened by the weight of the 3,488 km of disputed border. A solution eludes the two countries after nearly 45 rounds of talks since 1960. Both Doval and Wang will know that the “21st round of talks between the Special Representatives (SR) of India and China on the Boundary Question” – the current mechanism -is unlikely to take the protracted negotiations very far.

This will be Wang’s first round of talks as China’s designated SR and the fourth for Doval. The mechanism was put in place in 2003 with the mandate of achieving a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution for the India-china border question at an early date.

With India gearing up for general elections in about six months – and decision-making in New Delhi expected to slow down – this meeting will be more about maintaining the continuity of talks under the SR mechanism and the positive rhythm – at least on the surface.

Another important tick in the box of a series of high-level bilateral meetings that have marked the fairly remarkable turnaround in ties since the Doklam standoff ended last year.

Importantly, it is the first one after the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in April. Modi and Xi had announced there will be guidelines to ease tension along the border to prevent any repeat of Doklam-type standoff.

Foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale had, however, made it clear that the SR mechanism will continue “unabated” to find a permanent solution to the dispute. “While one of the areas of focus was to maintain peace and tranquillity (on the borders), I think the work of the special representatives on finding a solution to the boundary question will continue unabated,” Gokhale had then said.

One reason for the importance of the talks is that over the years the talks have evolved to include discussions between the SRS on a range of issues. The evolution of the talks was mentioned by former Chinese State Councillor and long-time SR, Dai Bingguo, in his memoir last year.

“I said the last 10 years is a decade that the China India boundary question SR mechanism went from being established to developing, this mechanism has become a high-level political channel and to a certain degree a strategic dialogue,’ Dai wrote.

“China hopes that the SR will exchange in-depth views on border issues, bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common concerns in a friendly atmosphere...,” the foreign ministry told HT in an emailed statement on Friday.

The SRS are likely to discuss the security environment in the region and beyond, especially in Afghanistan. The officials will likely review the progress of the ongoing India-china-afghanistan project focussed on training Afghan diplomats.