NSA Ajit Doval tells top Chinese official: ‘Situation along LAC since 2020 eroded trust’

Ajit Doval's meeting with Wang Yi took place on the sidelines of the Friends of BRICS meeting here in South Africa.

Updated on: Jul 25, 2023, 11:07:43 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Monday met top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and conveyed that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector of the India-China boundary since 2020 has “eroded strategic trust”, the ministry of external affairs said.

Doval's meeting with Wang, director of the Office of the foreign affairs commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, took place on the sidelines of the Friends of BRICS meeting here in South Africa.

“During the meeting, NSA conveyed that the situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the India-China boundary since 2020 had eroded strategic trust and the public and political basis of the relationship,” the MEA said in a statement.

“NSA emphasised the importance of continuing efforts to fully resolve the situation and restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, so as to remove impediments to normalcy in bilateral relations. The two sides agreed that the India-China bilateral relationship is significant not only for the two countries but also for the region and world,” it added.

The meeting came days after external affairs minister S Jaishankar met Wang in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, and discussed outstanding issues relating to peace and tranquillity in border areas.

India-China tension

India has been locked in a military standoff with China for more than three years, with Jaishankar describing it to be the most complex challenge in his long diplomatic career.

India has maintained that the bilateral relationship cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border area.

During the meeting with Doval, Wang said the two sides should enhance strategic mutual trust, focus on consensus and cooperation, overcome obstacles and bring bilateral relations back on track of sound and stable development as soon as possible, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

Wang stressed that China will never seek hegemony, and stands ready to work with developing countries, including India, to support multilateralism and the democratisation of international relations, and promote the more just and equitable development of international order.

Earlier on Monday, Doval called for collective efforts to deal with challenges emanating from cybersecurity at the Friends of BRICS meeting.

The NSA also held several bilaterals with his counterparts from and Friends of BRICS countries.

South Africa is hosting the BRICS Summit next month. BRICS is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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