India and China held a high-level meeting in Beijing today, where both sides discussed that there is a lot of expansion on the border issue. It was the 33rd meeting of the mechanism working for consultation and coordination or WMCC on India-China border matters.
Representatives of both nations reviewed the situation with real control or a line of lakhs. They also agreed to start border cross-border cooperation and initial resume of exchanges, including Trans-Barder rivers and Kailash-Mansarovar Yatra.
The Indian delegation was led by Gaurgal Das, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs. The Chinese delegation was led by Hong Leiang, Director General of the Department of Border and Ocean Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Beijing and New Delhi assured each other to do “adequate preparation” for the next meeting of their special representatives or SRS, which is on the border question to be held in Delhi this year.
After the meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs or MEA stated that the discussion was held in “positive and creative environment” and the two sides “extensively review the situation along the line of real control”.
It further stated that “both sides detected various measures and proposals to impact the decisions made during the 23rd meeting of special representatives on the Indo-China border question in Beijing in December 2024 and to carry forward the effective border management.”
Beijing and New Delhi also agreed to “maintain and strengthen” both diplomatic and military mechanisms to address issues with LAC.
After the meeting, Mr. Das, who led the Indian delegation, paid the courtesy visit of Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, Hong Lei.
From October last year, when PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the occasion of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, there has been an attempt to return to 2020 with LAC to improve relations by the two countries.
Recently as of 16 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed optimism about India’s relations with China, during an interview to Podcast Host Lex Fridman. He emphasized the importance of Beijing and New Delhi learning from each other and understanding each other. PM Modi talked about the importance of trust, enthusiasm and rebuilding of energy.
During the 3-hour interview, Prime Minister Modi accepted ancient cultural and decent relations between India and China. He had noted that there was never a struggle between the two ancient neighbors in many of its Millennia-old history. He advocated healthy competition between the two countries, but emphasized that the competition should never be converted into conflict.
Welcoming PM Modi’s “positive” comments, China said that “dragon-elastic dance” cooperation is the only right option for two neighbors. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, “I should emphasize that in the history of more than 2000 years of conversation, the two countries have maintained friendly exchange and the two countries have learned from each other, contributing to decent achievements and human progress.”
(Input from PTI and ANI)