JOIN USIndia remained noncommittal to China’s proposal of inking a new code of conduct to maintain peace and tranquility along the disputed border between the two nations, even as Special Representatives of New Delhi and Beijing restarted boundary negotiations on Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is also India’s Special Representative for boundary negotiation and strategic consultation with China, met his counterpart and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi in New Delhi.
Resumption of talks
They held the 18th round of Special Representative level parleys, marking the resumption of the process that was stalled for almost a year due to parliamentary elections.
Though the outcome of the parleys was not made public, sources told Deccan Herald that Beijing had pushed New Delhi hard to fast-track negotiations on a new code of conduct to be implemented along the Line of Actual Control.
Yang conveyed to Doval that Beijing was keen to conclude its negotiations with New Delhi over the proposed border code of conduct so that it could be inked during Modi’s forthcoming visit to China in May.
India is not averse to ink a new code to maintain peace along the de-facto border, pending the final resolution. Doval, however, made it clear that New Delhi would commit itself to such a code after being convinced that it would not curb its sovereign right to develop infrastructure along the Indian side of the LAC.
New Delhi, on the other hand, called for resumption of the process to clear doubts about alignment of the LAC to prevent face-off between border guards. Yang had proposed the new code when he and Doval’s predecessor Shiv Shankar Menon held the 17th round of talks in New Delhi in February 2014.