On Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that Hong Liang, Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, and Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary of the East Asia Division in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, co-chaired the meeting in Beijing.
The meeting was described as being held in a “positive, friendly, and frank atmosphere,” with both sides agreeing to work towards improving the border situation as soon as possible.
Positive Progress
Qian Feng, Director of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, noted that recent communications and negotiations on border issues between China and India have shown positive progress. The meeting was the second in a month, following two meetings between the foreign ministers of China and India in July, indicating a concerted effort to resolve border issues quickly.
China and India held six WMCC meetings in 2020 after the Galwan Valley incident. Since the mechanism’s inception in 2012, meetings have generally occurred one to three times per year, except for 2020.
Qian emphasized that the recent interactions are a positive development, suggesting that China-India relations are stabilizing and both countries are seeking a common solution to return to healthy bilateral relations.
The Thursday meeting was not expected to resolve the border issue completely but provided a new perspective on addressing the prolonged standoff in the western sector. Overall, despite ongoing uncertainties, the positive engagement and efforts from both sides have been noteworthy, according to Qian.
