National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval has been appointed Special Representative for talks with China on the boundary issue, an official release said on Monday.
The post of Special Representative has been vacant since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government demitted office and the last Special Representative was former NSA Shivshankar Menon.
“This arrangement (as Special Representative) will be part of NSA’s overall assignment,” the official announced said.
India and China created the role of Special Representatives during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit to Beijing in 2003 to explore a solution to the boundary issue from a political perspective.
So far, 17 rounds of talks have taken place between the Special Representatives of the two countries. In April 2005, a framework agreement on principles to address the boundary issue was firmed up, but then progress has slowed on account of differing perceptions.
The whole idea behind the mechanism was that trusted representative of the political leaderships in the two countries would take the process of boundary resolution forward. However, perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the boundary in the eastern and western sectors remain divergent.
During the New Delhi visit of President Xi Jinping in September, the two countries agreed that “pending a final resolution of the boundary question, the two sides would continue to make joint efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas”.
During President Xi’s visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised India’s serious concern over “repeated incidents along the border”.
“While our border related agreements and confidence building measures have worked well, I also suggested that clarification of Line of Actual Control would greatly contribute to our efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity and requested President Xi to resume the stalled process of clarifying the LAC,” Mr. Modi said on September 18.
