Special representatives to forge India-China ties after Doklam standoff

After the successful visit of Chinese foreign minister, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will play host to Councillor Yang Jiechi to share perspectives of both the countries on the strategic environment in Asia and beyond.

Updated on: Dec 16, 2017, 23:20:10 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Shishir Gupta

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India and China will put aside the repercussions of the Doklam standoff and move forward to deepen bilateral ties when special representatives (SR) of the two countries on boundary resolution meet here on December 21-22.

A Chinese soldier stands next to an Indian counterpart at the Nathu La border crossing between India and China in Sikkim state. (AFP File Photo)

At the 20th round of talks, Chinese Politburo member and state councillor Yang Jiechi will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the situation on the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) with National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval. Councillor Yang will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit.

After the successful visit of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi this month, Doval will play host to Councillor Yang to share perspectives of both the countries on the strategic environment in Asia and beyond, including developments in North Korea and West Asia.

Councillor Yang, who has delegated powers of the top leadership on handling bilateral ties with India, is one of the foremost diplomats of China having served as ambassador to the US in the past decade.

He is also a member of the all-powerful 19th politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

“As boundary resolution is one of the charters of the SR dialogue, the two representatives will have extensive discussions on how to maintain peace and tranquility on the LAC and the need for the top leadership on both sides to keep in touch with each other in order to defuse any tensions,” said a senior official.

Chinese diplomatic sources based in Delhi also confirmed the SR annual meeting.

Although media reports on both sides have been hyper over Doklam even after the August 28 disengagement, top Indian Army sources confirmed that Chinese PLA has reduced its troop strength from a division-plus to merely a battalion strength, short of the Doklam plateau.

Indian commanders say that troops on both sides are patrolling on their sides of the border even as snows have set in at the plateau.

The Indian side has examined statements on Doklam after foreign minister Wang’s visit and are satisfied at the measured restraint from Chinese side.

At the special representative dialogue, both the leaders are expected to have candid discussions, assuring the other that growing India-US or China-Russia relationship will not be directed at a third country.

Although China has expressed concern over India-US relationship, Beijing has been told that its own economic ties with US have deep roots and the Quad dialogue (India-US-Japan-Australia) was no different from the China group on Afghanistan.

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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