The Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday said that talks between China’s state councilor Yang Jeichi and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval covered extensive ground and were not confined to discussions on the borders alone.
Foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying said that the 20th round of talks between the two Special Representatives (SR) reflected the directions given by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Xiamen summit of the BRICS countries in September.
She said that the SR talks were an important platform for “strategic communication” between the two neighbours.
“Member of the Central Committee and Yang Jiechi just held the special representative meeting with the Indian side. This mechanism is not only a high level channel of dialogue on the border affairs between the two sides but also an important platform for strategic communication between China and India,” the spokesperson observed.
She added: “We know that President Xi and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi met this year in Xiamen and reached an important consensus. So the special representatives meeting this time would follow the consensus of the state leaders to exchange our views on the issue mutual concern focus on cooperation across the board so as to achieve our win-win cooperation and mutual benefits.
Ms. Hua signalled that additional mechanisms for maintaining calm at the borders were not required as the existing channels of communication were “operating very well”. “We hope the Indian side will work with China to make the most of the current mechanism to uphold security and peace as well as tranquility in the border area so that we can create enabling conditions for the bilateral relations.”
Mr. Yang’s visit acquires additional significance as his stature has risen in China’s official hierarchy following the recent 19th Party Congress. Unlike foreign minister Wang Yi, who continues his presence in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Mr. Yang has been elevated to the 25-member Politburo.
Highly placed sources said that Mr. Yang’s visit had been “shaped” by the recent visit to India by foreign minister Wang, which did not go into specifics, but unveiled the “broad trajectory” that the relationship between the two countries could acquire in the future.
But Mr. Yang’s visit was meant to generate more specific ideas to “give new direction to the relationship,” in view of China acquiring a higher profile in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, and India’s inclination to more deeply engage with countries in the Indo-Pacific.
Earlier an official source had told The Hindu that the dialogue in Xiamen summit had proposed urgency for a new hands-on mechanism that would supplement the already existing, but periodically held, “strategic dialogue” between the two countries. The new channel of regular communication was expected to address concerns of an aspirational India and rising China in the region, including the Indian Ocean and the Asia-Pacific.
