New Delhi: After talks between India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri and China’s vice-foreign minister Sun Weidong in Beijing on Monday, the two countries decided to “resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra” this summer and also “agreed in principle to resume direct air services” between the two countries. Mr Sun was earlier the Chinese ambassador in New Delhi.
“They also agreed to hold an early meeting of the India-China Expert Level Mechanism to discuss resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers,” New Delhi said.
It may be noted that recently, after the proposed construction of a dam on the Brahmaputra by China, New Delhi had said it had conveyed its concerns to Beijing and urged it to “ensure that the interests of downstream states of the Brahmaputra are not harmed by activities in upstream areas”.
Seeking to improve ties, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Monday also told Mr Misri in Beijing that the “two sides should seize the opportunity, meet each other halfway, explore more substantive measures, and commit to mutual understanding, mutual support, and mutual achievement, rather than mutual suspicion, mutual alienation and mutual estrangement”, media reports cited the Chinese foreign ministry as saying on Monday evening. Mr Misri is on a two-day visit to Beijing that started on Sunday as part of the foreign secretary-vice minister mechanism between the two nations.
Mr Wang was quoted as saying: “The improvement and development of China-India relations is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and their peoples, is conducive to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the Global South countries. Good relations between India and China are also conducive to making contributions to the peace, stability, development and prosperity of the two ancient civilisations in Asia and the world.” He further said that since the meeting between President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kazan in Russia last year, the two sides have earnestly implemented the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, carried out active interactions at all levels and accelerated the process of improving China-India relations. Mr Wang, who is also a member Communist Party of China (CPC) politburo, also reportedly said the improvement and development of China-India relations “fully align with the fundamental interests of both countries and their peoples, and are conducive to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the Global South countries”.
In a statement, New Delhi said foreign secretary Vikram Misri visited Beijing on 26-27 January for a meeting of the foreign secretary-vice foreign minister mechanism between India and China on 27 January. “As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan in October, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilise and rebuild ties.”
It added: “The two sides agreed to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions. The two sides recognize that 2025, being the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China, should be utilised to redouble public diplomacy efforts to create better awareness about each other and restore mutual trust and confidence among the public. The two sides will conduct a number of commemorative activities to mark this anniversary.”
It said: “Specific concerns in the economic and trade areas were discussed with a view to resolving these issues and promoting long-term policy transparency and predictability.” Ahead of Mr Misri’s visit, New Delhi had earlier said 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.”
Just last month in Beijing, national security adviser and India’s special representative, Ajit Doval, held talks on the India-China boundary issue with China’s SR Wang Yi, when both sides had “positively affirmed the implementation of the latest disengagement agreement of October this year, resulting in patrolling and grazing in relevant areas”. But India had refused to endorse China’s described outcome from those talks of a “six-point consensus” on the boundary issue, with New Delhi saying it will stand only by its own press statement issued after the SR talks in Beijing. China had claimed a “six-point consensus” had been reached with the Indian side during the talks, but there was no reference to this in India’s statement, indicating it was essentially a Chinese terminology. According to Beijing, this included “proper handling of border issues”, seeking of a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable package solution to the boundary issue”, “refining of management and control rules in the border areas”, and promoting the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage to Tibet.
