Suhasini Haidar
The Hindu
March 22, 2015
Chinese President Xi Jinping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on September 18, 2014. Photo: R.V. Moorthy
This is the first time that Modi govt. will engage with Beijing
Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China will sit down on Monday for the 18th round of talks on the border dispute, with a view to finalising the framework for resolution, as well as prepare for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China in May.
Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi, who is in Delhi ahead of his meeting with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, will meet Mr. Modi on Tuesday.
This is the first time that the Modi government will engage with Mr. Yang on the border issue after Mr. Doval was appointed SR last November. “It will be an exercise in clarifying and understanding each other’s positions,” government sources said.
The talks come a year after the last round of SR talks, and six months after Mr. Modi raised “serious concerns” about incidents of transgressions along the India-China border which overshadowed his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Delhi.
“Clarification of the Line of Actual Control would greatly contribute to our efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity and I requested President Xi to resume the stalled process of clarifying the LAC,” Mr. Modi had said at the time.
Talks will be a new start: Chinese envoy
Without confirming if clarification of the Line of Actual Control would be the focus of the talks beginning Monday, Chinese Ambassador to India Le Yucheng said the talks would be “a new start” with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, the Special Representative, whom he described as a “good friend.”
“We are looking forward to continuity of spirit and atmosphere we have from previous talks. Both sides will express our vision on how to find a way out of this dilemma,” Mr. Le told the Headlines Today network.
The two parts of the border dispute — roughly 2,000 km along Arunachal Pradesh and about 4,000 km along the LAC in Ladakh, especially the Aksai Chin area taken by China in the 1962 war — will form the discussions between Mr. Doval and Chinese Special Representative Yang Jiechi, expected to last the day on Monday.
