NSA Ajit Doval heads to Beijing today for key talks with Wang Yi: What’s on agenda?

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is scheduled to head to Beijing today, 24 August to take part in the India-China Special Representatives (SR) talks on the boundary issue with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Doval and Wang are scheduled to hold the 25th round of SR talks on 25 August, news agency PTI said quoting official sources.

Both Doval and Wang are the designated SRs for the boundary talks mechanism, which was established in 2003 to comprehensively address the vexed boundary dispute of the India-China border spanning 3,488 km.

"I think we went through a particularly bad patch between the summer of 2020 and the autumn of 2024, and that was primarily an outcome of the situation in the border areas," Jaishankar said at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in New Delhi on Saturday.

"At the end of the day, peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a prerequisite for good relations, and the state of the border, to a very large measure, naturally would determine the state of the relations," he said.

On the reports of stepped-up Chinese military activity near the Arunachal Pradesh border, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on August 12 that the China-India border situation is "generally stable at the moment".

China and India held the 36th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs, Guo said.

"The two sides agreed to maintain communication via diplomatic and military channels and jointly uphold peace and tranquility in the border areas", he said.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on August 11 said that India considers matters relating to border areas with China as "most serious" and asserted that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is of "utmost importance", as the state of the frontier will govern the overall trajectory of bilateral ties.

Earlier, New Delhi also trashed Beijing's criticism of its decision to formally identify 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard names, emphasising that the state is an "inalienable and integral" part of India and nothing can change this "indisputable reality".

China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, has been releasing its set of names for the region since 2017. India termed the Chinese move as "vain and preposterous", asserting that such actions will not alter the "undeniable" reality that the state "was, is, and will" always remain an integral part of India.

Doval met Wang in June

Wang Yi was in India in June for a meeting of the BRICS NSAs. He had met Doval on the sidelines of the meeting then. Wang, who is also China's Foreign Minister, had then underlined that it was ‘imperative’ for India and China to respect each other's ‘core interests’ and take concrete actions to implement the ‘important consensus’ reached by both sides.

Foreign affairs expert Waiel Awwad said the strategic weight of Doval's China visit marks a powerful diplomatic signal of India's openness to stable bilateral relations, provided that border tranquillity is maintained.

Awwad emphasised that the constructive bilateral progress depends entirely on resolving territorial disputes.

"This is a very strong message by India letting the National Security Advisor go to Beijing," Awwad told news agency ANI.

‘India ready to make good relations with China’

"It's a strong message in the sense that India is ready to make good relations with China, provided that the border should be quiet, the tranquillity and stability should be there, and all the disputes should be solved before any kind of an asset or a trust-building measure should be taking place in terms of the economy and the bilateral relations."

The foreign affairs expert further noted that this preliminary step carries broader implications for regional security.

"Secondly, it's also quite important for India and China to be good partners and to stabilise Asia, especially at a time when geopolitical changes are taking place so much, as a first step and having a direct impact on the future stability in South and Southeast Asia," he added.

Foreign affairs expert Robinder Sachdev pointed out the critical timing of the visit ahead of the upcoming 18th BRICS Summit, scheduled to be held earlier this year under India's presidency. He noted the potential of the NSA's reported visit to shape upcoming high-level multilateral engagements, including a potential visit to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

"The visit of NSA Doval to Beijing is coming at a very important time," Sachdev remarked. "We soon also have the upcoming BRICS summit happening in Delhi, in which Xi Jinping could probably be visiting also, and a bilateral with Prime Minister Narendra Modi...it is time for both China and India to look and address the boundary issue honestly."

(With agency inputs)