India agrees with China to explore early harvest boundary deal, despite opposing resolution of dispute in piecemeal manner earlier

2005 agreement had stipulated that the boundary settlement must be final, covering all sectors

New Delhi: India agreed on Tuesday to explore an early harvest deal on boundary delimitation with China, although it had previously opposed resolving the dispute in a piecemeal manner.

The two sides, at the same time, reaffirmed their commitment to a 2005 agreement, which, however, had stipulated that the boundary settlement must be final, covering all sectors – western, middle and eastern.

As National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the current special representatives of India and China, respectively, for boundary negotiations, met in New Delhi, the two sides agreed to create mechanisms for consultations between the military commanders in the eastern and the middle sectors of the disputed boundary to avert flashpoints. A similar mechanism already exists in the western sector and played a key role in resolving the 2020-2024 military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. The 24th round of boundary negotiations also saw India and China agreeing to set up a working mechanism to advance effective border management to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

Neither New Delhi nor Beijing, however, clarified whether or not the special representatives of the two governments for boundary negotiations discussed the issue of lifting the moratorium on patrolling in the buffer zones, which were created along the LAC in the western sector to resolve the stand-off.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, the two sides agreed on setting up an Expert Group, under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), to explore early harvest in boundary delimitation in the India-China border areas. A press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the government of China noted that the expert group would explore the possibility of advancing boundary demarcation negotiations in areas where conditions were ripe.

Beijing had in the past proposed an “early-harvest agreement” with New Delhi to settle the bilateral dispute in the less contentious sectors of the China-India boundary. New Delhi had turned down the proposal from Beijing and maintained that it would prefer a comprehensive settlement covering the entire India-China boundary, rather than resolving the dispute in a piecemeal manner.

The special representatives of India and China had started talks to resolve the boundary dispute in 2003. They had reached an agreement in 2005 on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question, which mentioned that the settlement “must be final, covering all sectors of the India-China boundary”.

The process of boundary negotiations at the level of the special representatives remained stalled during the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh but was restarted in December 2024.

Wang later called on Modi and formally handed over to him an invitation from President Xi Jinping to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit at Tianjin in northern China from August 31 to September 1. “Stable, predictable, constructive ties between India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” Modi posted on X after Wang called on him. He added that he was looking forward to his next meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the SCO summit. India is committed to reaching a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable resolution” to its boundary dispute with China, Modi said, recalling his meeting with Xi at Kazan in Russia in October 2024 and noting that India-China relations had since then “made steady progress guided by respect for each other's interests and sensitivities”.

Modi and Xi had met at Kazan just two days after the four-and-a-half-year-long military stand-off along the LAC – the de facto boundary between India and China – had come to an end with a deal on the last two face-off points, Depsung and Demchok, in eastern Ladakh. Earlier, both sides had mutually withdrawn frontline troops from other face-off points, like Galwan Valley, northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra Post and Hot Springs, one by one, after agreeing to a moratorium on patrolling in the buffer zone in each case.

Doval and Wang on Tuesday agreed that the mechanisms at diplomatic and military levels would be used to carry forward the process of border management, and to discuss the principles and modalities of de-escalation or withdrawal of additional troops deployed by both sides during the stand-off over the past four and a half years in the rear areas along the LAC.

Wang’s visit to New Delhi and his meetings with Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar set the stage for Modi’s forthcoming meeting with Xi – the first between the two leaders since Donald Trump returned to the White House as the 47th president of the US and launched a tariff tirade, with both India and China being at its receiving end.