National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Monday for a two-day visit to participate in the Special Representatives (SR) talks on the India-China boundary question with his Chinese counterpart and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The talks, scheduled for Tuesday, assume significance amid uncertainty over Chinese President Xi Jinping’s much-anticipated visit to India for the BRICS summit on Sept 12-13. They also come as differences over the border and Arunachal Pradesh continue to figure prominently in bilateral ties.
Relations between New Delhi and Beijing came under severe strain following the 2020 Galwan Valley clash and the prolonged military stand-off in eastern Ladakh. Both countries have since taken steps to stabilise ties.
25th Round Of Boundary Talks
Announcing the talks at a media briefing in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Doval and Wang would hold an in-depth discussion on the boundary question as well as other bilateral, regional and international relations.
Lin said the China-India SR talks are the main channel for negotiations between the two countries on the boundary issue and an important platform for communication on matters of mutual interest.
In August last year, India and China held the 24th round of talks, during which the two sides had candid and in-depth exchanges on the boundary question and reached several common understandings, Lin said.
During the 25th round, the two sides will continue discussions on the boundary question in keeping with the common understandings between the leaders of the two countries and work to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas, he said. They will also exchange views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues.
Doval and Wang are the designated SRs under the boundary talks mechanism established in 2003 to comprehensively address the dispute along the 3,488-km India-China border.
Although the mechanism has not resolved the boundary dispute, officials on both sides regard it as a useful platform for addressing recurring tensions between the two countries.
Besides attending the SR talks, Doval will call on Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, the External Affairs Ministry said in a press release.
Focus On Xi’s Possible India Visit
Lin on Monday skirted questions about Xi’s much-anticipated visit to New Delhi for the BRICS summit next month.
There is no official confirmation of Xi’s visit yet, but officials on both sides are optimistic about his participation. The summit could provide an opportunity for Xi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines and discuss initiatives to take bilateral ties forward.
Modi and Xi last met in August 2025 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.
Ahead of the Doval-Wang talks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday reiterated that "peace and tranquillity" along the border areas are a prerequisite for good relations with China.
His comments came amid reports of aggressive posturing by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri region in recent weeks.
"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.
Also Watch:
Arunachal Pradesh Remains A Key Issue
Responding to reports of increased Chinese military activity near the Arunachal Pradesh border, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Aug 12 that the China-India border situation is "generally stable at the moment".
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Aug 11 said India considers matters relating to border areas with China as "most serious". He asserted that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control is of "utmost importance", as the state of the frontier will govern the overall trajectory of bilateral ties.
New Delhi had earlier rejected Beijing’s criticism of India’s 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 own set of names for places in the region since 2017.
India termed the Chinese move "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.
