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Almost four months after the face-off at the Doklam plateau in the tri-junction region, India and China will be holding the next round of formal negotiations on the boundary issue on December 22.
The talks, which will be the 20th round since the establishment of the Special Representatives (SR) mechanism in 2003, will be held between Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser, and Yang Jiechi, State Councillor and Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, both of whom are also designated SRs on the Boundary Question, according to a Ministry of External Affairs statement on Wednesday.
The decision to hold the SRs meet was finalised last week during the meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that was held on the sidelines of the Russia-India-China (RIC) conference here.
The last round of SRs meeting was held in Beijing in April last year.
During the SRs meeting, China is likely to make an attempt to coax India into joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a brainchild of Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is also planning to rename the $50-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a part of the multi-billion dollar BRI, sources told BusinessLine .
India is opposed to CPEC as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. China is also keen on discussing the Doklam incident with India as it wants the Modi government to “learn lessons” from the incident and how such an incident should be avoided in the future, sources said.
Experts questioned the relevance of the SRs mechanism in settling the border issue.
“It is true that the mechanism has not delivered the desired result, at least, as far as the boundary question is concerned,” said Swaran Singh, Professor (School of International Studies), Jawaharlal Nehru University. “Both sides have met and discussed everything but settling the border. The dynamics have changed between India and China since 2003, when the mechanism was established. China today sees itself in a different league altogether. So we have to keep in mind the re-arrangements that have to be made so that the SR mechanism does not become dysfunctional.”
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