China welcomes Foreign Secretary Misri's visit to improve ties

Special Representative NSA Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held the 23rd meeting of the mechanism in December after a gap of five years. The meeting was concluded with positive outcomes.

Beijing: China on Friday (January 24) welcomed Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit this weekend and sounded positive about its outcome, saying the development followed a series of interactions between top leaders and officials from both countries after over four years of stalled ties over the Ladakh military standoff.

“We welcome Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri’s travel to China for the meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between China and India," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here.

Mao said that last October, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached important common understandings on improving and growing bilateral relations during their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan.

Recently, both sides have acted to earnestly implement these common understandings, she said. Chinese and Indian foreign and defence ministers met each other on multilateral occasions.

This was followed by the 23rd meeting between Special Representatives (SRs) of China and India on the boundary issue.

SRs NSA Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held the 23rd meeting of the mechanism in December after a gap of five years. The meeting was concluded with positive outcomes.

Mao said during the talks both sides agreed to improve and strengthen interactions, resume institutional dialogues as well as exchanges and cooperation in various fields, including working on bringing the China-India relations back on track with sound and steady growth at an early date.

Misri's visit is taking place on Republic Day ahead of the celebrations of China's Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year beginning on January 29 during which the country will officially shut down for a week.

After Doval’s visit, Misri's will be the second high-level visit by an Indian official to Beijing in about a month.

The MEA said on Thursday that "Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will be visiting Beijing on January 26 and 27 for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between India and China".

"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," it said in a brief statement.

It is expected the two sides would touch upon several issues at the talks, including ways to de-escalate the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

China has been impressing India to agree to resume direct flights between the two countries and facilitate the issuance of visas to Chinese citizens.

The decision to revive the SR mechanism and other such dialogue formats was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on October 23.

The Modi-Xi meeting came two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok, the last two friction points in eastern Ladakh.

In the SR dialogue, India pressed for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement of the overall boundary dispute between the two countries.

Doval and Wang also focused on a "positive" direction for cross-border cooperation, including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, river data sharing and border trade.

India has maintained that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas.

Following the completion of the disengagement process in Demchok and Depsang, Indian and Chinese militaries also resumed patrolling activities in the two areas after a gap of almost four-and-a-half years.

Last week, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said the India-China relationship is trying to disentangle itself from the complications arising from the post-2020 border situation and more thought needs to be given to the longer-term evolution of the ties.

In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said India and China should handle the bilateral ties from a strategic height and long-term perspective while implementing the common understanding reached by the leaders of the two countries.