(TibetanReview.net, Dec17’24) –There is evident improvement-momentum in relations between India and China as their Special Representatives for the settlement of the border issues were scheduled to meet in Beijing on Dec 18, reported China’s official globaltimes.cn Dec 16.
India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said Dec 15 that while it is in the interest of both India and China to “reach an equilibrium”, the problem is “we are still grappling with short-term” and right now, short-term will focus on de-escalation.
As agreed by China and India, China’s Special Representative on the China-India boundary question, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi and India’s Special Representative and National Security Adviser Shri Ajit Doval will hold the 23rd meeting of Special Representatives for China-India Boundary Question in Beijing on Dec 18, the globaltimes.cn report cited Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian as announcing Dec 16.
Since China and India reached resolutions on issues concerning the border area, following the two leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit, bilateral relations have emerged from the low point, with an evident improvement momentum, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, has said.
The report said the readout released by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affair after the Dec 5, 32nd Meeting of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs in New Delhi (which was co-chaired by Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of China’s Foreign Ministry Hong Liang and Joint Secretary of the East Asia Division of India’s Ministry of External Affairs Gourangalal Das) positively evaluated the solutions reached by the two countries on border issues.
The report noted that the two sides had agreed to continue to fully and effectively implement the relevant solutions and take measures to further ease the border situation.
Citing the common understandings reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during their meeting at Kazan in Russia on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on Oct 24, the report cited Lin as saying: “China stands ready to work with India to deliver on important common understandings reached between our two leaders, enhance mutual trust and mutual confidence through dialogue and communication, honour our commitments and promote our bilateral relations to go back to the sound and steady growth.”
Also, speaking during a discussion with C Raja Mohan, Contributing Editor, The Indian Express, at the launch of foreign policy magazine ‘India’s World’, in New Delhi, on Dec 15, India’s Jaishankar has said, “Eventually, it’s in the interest of both India and China to reach an equilibrium. Conceptually, it’s difficult to do because both are changing in absolute terms and vis-a-vis the world.”
However, he has made it clear that the two sides were still at the beginning of the process for normalizing their bilateral ties.
“We are still grappling with the short term (issue), which is to focus on de-escalation. While disengagement has been worked out, there are other issues which confront us,” the indianexpress.com Dec 16 quoted Jaishankar as saying.
Mentioning neither China nor USA, given the fact that unpredictable Donald Trump will assume the presidency of the latter in Jan 2025, Jaishankar has said, “India’s economic trajectory will put some premium on (its ties with) countries like Russia, Indonesia, Australia, or even Canada,” adding, “It’s a new compulsion and new rationalisation of who our partners would be.”
He has also mentioned Europe, calling it an important partner in terms of many of the key concerns — supply chains, AI, semiconductors and digital exchanges. “There is a broad intersection which needs to be built upon.”