Interlocutors for boundary talks can't resolve stand-off: China

Beijing refuses to acknowledge recent Doval-Yang meeting as one between boundary negotiators of India.

China has told India that the two nation's interlocutors, who are negotiating a settlement of the boundary dispute, have no role in resolving the current military face-off in Doklam Plateau.

Beijing also declined to acknowledge the recent meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi as the one between the Special Representatives of the two nations for boundary negotiations.

The metting between Doval and Yang was held in Beijing on July 28 on the sideline of a multilateral meeting.

Beijing conveyed to New Delhi that the current stand-off in Doklam Plateau was out of the purview of the Special Representatives appointed by China and India to negotiate a settlement of the disputed boundary. It argued that since the boundary between the two neighbours at Sikkim Sector had already been delimited by the 1890 convention between UK and China, the bilateral mechanism led by the Special Representatives had no scope to discuss the current face-off.

New Delhi, however, did not buy the argument and pointed it out that while the status of Sikkim as an integral part of India had been settled, India-China boundary in Sikkim Sector still remained unsettled and a matter of negotiation between the Special Representatives of the two nations, sources told the DH.

“The ongoing diplomatic communication between China and India on the stand-off has nothing to do with existing mechanisms concerning the boundary, including the one involving the Special Representatives,” Liu Jinsong, Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of People's Republic of China in New Delhi, said.

Doval is at present India's Special Representative for boundary talks with China. His counterpart is Yang.

During their recent meeting on the sideline of a conclave of the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa) High Representatives for National Security in Beijing, Doval and Yang discussed the face-off between the soldiers of Indian Army and Chinese People's Liberation Army in Doklam Plateau along the disputed territory along China-Bhutan border.

Liu said that Yang had met Doval at the capacity of State Councillor of China, not as the Special Representative for boundary negotiations with India. He claimed that New Delhi had also agreed to regard the meeting as the one that Doval had at the capacity of National Security Advisor to Prime Minister of India.

“The nature of the Sikkim sector is totally different from other parts of the boundary. This is settled, defined boundary. Other parts are unsettled,” said the senior diplomat of Chinese Embassy in New Delhi.

The Special Representatives of India and China in 2003 started negotiations to resolve the long-pending boundary dispute between the two nations.

They reached an agreement in 2005 on the political parameters and guiding principles for settlement of the dispute. They have since been engaged in talks on a framework for boundary settlement, which will be followed by actual demarcation of the border.

Brajesh Mishra, the National Security Advisor to the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee, was the first Special Representative of India for boundary negotiations with China. He was succeeded by J N Dixit, M K Narayanan and Shivshankar Menon between 2004 and 2014. Their counterpart was Dai Binguo, who was Yang's predecessor in the office of the State Councillor of China. Dai had in 15 rounds of negotiations with successive Special Representatives of India till 2013. Yang had the 16th and 17th rounds of negotiations with Menon and the 18th and 19th rounds with Doval.

During the 19th round of negotiations in Beijing in April 2016, Doval and Yang had agreed that the 20th round would take place in New Delhi this year.

Liu, however, said that the dates for the 20th round of boundary negotiations between Special Representatives of India and China had not yet been finalized.