Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to visit Beijing to discuss next steps for India-China relations
| 2025-01-23
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri. (File photo)
In October 2024, PM Modi and President Xi agreed to revive several high-level bilateral mechanisms to address the border dispute and normalise ties
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will be visiting Beijing on 26-27 January 2025 for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between India and China, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Thursday (January 23, 2025).
This is the second high-profile visit from India to China in a little over a month. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd Meeting of the Special Representatives (SRs) on the India-China border question on December 18, 2024. The SR-level talks was the first since the Galwan Valley clash of June 2020.
“The resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains,” the MEA stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Kazan, Russia on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, on October 23, 2024, two days after India and China reached an agreement to disengage frontline forces in the Western Sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. This agreement marked the resolution of the last two friction points—Demchok and Depsang—along the LAC.
During their talks, the two leaders agreed to revive several high-level bilateral mechanisms to address the border dispute and normalise ties.
Following this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 Summit in Brazil on November 18, 2024. This was followed by a meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ meeting in Laos on November 20, 2024.
India-China relations hit a low point in June 2020 following the Galwan Valley clash, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops. The incident led to the massing of troops along the LAC and a prolonged military standoff. Subsequent disengagement agreements were reached at Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Gogra, and Hot Springs, but Demchok and Depsang remained unresolved until October 2024.
During their talks in December 2024, the Special Representatives reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the boundary dispute based on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles agreed upon in 2005. This framework underscores the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility along the LAC to enable the broader development of bilateral relations.
Both sides also reviewed issues of peaceful border management comprehensively. “Drawing on the learnings from the events of 2020, they discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border and advance effective border management. They decided to use, coordinate and guide the relevant diplomatic and military mechanisms towards this purpose,” the MEA stated after the SRs meeting.
This is the second high-profile visit from India to China in a little over a month. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 23rd Meeting of the Special Representatives (SRs) on the India-China border question on December 18, 2024. The SR-level talks was the first since the Galwan Valley clash of June 2020.
“The resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains,” the MEA stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping met in Kazan, Russia on the sidelines of the SCO Summit, on October 23, 2024, two days after India and China reached an agreement to disengage frontline forces in the Western Sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. This agreement marked the resolution of the last two friction points—Demchok and Depsang—along the LAC.
During their talks, the two leaders agreed to revive several high-level bilateral mechanisms to address the border dispute and normalise ties.
Following this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the margins of the G20 Summit in Brazil on November 18, 2024. This was followed by a meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun at the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ meeting in Laos on November 20, 2024.
India-China relations hit a low point in June 2020 following the Galwan Valley clash, which resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops. The incident led to the massing of troops along the LAC and a prolonged military standoff. Subsequent disengagement agreements were reached at Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Gogra, and Hot Springs, but Demchok and Depsang remained unresolved until October 2024.
During their talks in December 2024, the Special Representatives reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the boundary dispute based on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles agreed upon in 2005. This framework underscores the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility along the LAC to enable the broader development of bilateral relations.
Both sides also reviewed issues of peaceful border management comprehensively. “Drawing on the learnings from the events of 2020, they discussed various measures to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border and advance effective border management. They decided to use, coordinate and guide the relevant diplomatic and military mechanisms towards this purpose,” the MEA stated after the SRs meeting.
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