New Delhi:Foreign secretary Vikram Misri will undertake a two-day visit to Beijing starting Sunday to attend a meeting of the foreign secretary-vice minister mechanism between India and China, in the second such high-profile visit from India to China in less than one-and-a-half months.
Last month, national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval visited Beijing and held talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi under the framework of special representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary dispute.
"The resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains," New Delhi said in a statement.
It is expected that the two sides would touch upon a number of issues at the talks, including ways to de-escalate the situation along the line of actual control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.
China has been impressing upon India to agree on resuming direct flights between the two countries and facilitate issuance of visas to Chinese citizens.
It may be noted that the two nations had achieved a breakthrough last October by inking a pact on military disengagement in Depsang and Demchok in the Ladakh sector after several rounds of talks at both the diplomatic and military levels. The decision to revive the SR mechanism and other such dialogue formats was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on October 23.
In the nearly 50-minute meeting, Modi underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquillity in border areas.
In the SR dialogue, India pressed for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement of the overall boundary dispute between the two countries.
Mr Doval and Mr Wang also focused on a "positive" direction for cross-border cooperation including resuming the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, river data sharing and border trade.
Last month, external affairs minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar informed Parliament that military “disengagement (with China) has now been achieved in full in Eastern Ladakh through a step by step process, culminating in Depsang and Demchok” following the pact between the two Asian giants in October last year.
He emphasised the need to now focus on de-escalation and troop withdrawal along the LAC.
"The next priority will be to consider de-escalation, that would address the massing of troops along the line of actual control (LAC) with associated accompaniments,” he added.
The external affairs minister noted that as immediate neighbours and the only two societies with over a billion people, the India-China dynamic could never have been easy.
Another matter that has now cropped up between the two nations is the one regarding the proposed construction of a dam on the Brahmaputra river by China, New Delhi had recently said it had conveyed its concerns to Beijing and had urged it to “ensure that the interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in upstream areas”. India had said it would “take necessary measures to protect” its interests.
