Beijing : National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, who is on a two-day visit to China, held a bilateral meeting on Tuesday with China's Vice President Han Zheng. The leaders held discussions on promoting peace and stability across the border areas while also aiming to further strengthen the bilateral partnership. The meeting between the leaders comes ahead of the 25th round of border talks scheduled to take place later on Tuesday between NSA Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Sharing the details of the meeting in a post on X, the Embassy of India in China said, "On 25 August, NSA and Special Representative on the India-China Boundary Question, Ajit Doval called on Han Zheng, Vice President of the People's Republic of China." As per the Indian Embassy, prior to the 25th Round of the Special Representative talks on the India-China border later on Tuesday, NSA and VP Han discussed ways to strengthen peace and tranquillity in the border areas.They also held discussions on further improving bilateral relations across economic, political and multilateral fora, in accordance with the consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries.
The meeting slated to take place later today between NSA Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi would come shortly after they met in June in India on the sidelines of the BRICS National Security Advisers' meeting in New Delhi.
The talks, described by India's Ministry of External Affairs as "constructive and forward-looking," mark another step in the ongoing effort to recalibrate the bilateral relationship between the two Asian giants. The Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had then said, "The two sides reviewed recent developments in bilateral relations and noted progress towards gradual normalisation. NSA underlined that stable, predictable and constructive bilateral relations contribute to building trust and better understanding between the two sides. The discussions were constructive and forward-looking."
NSA Doval's visit comes as a part of the thaw of ties between New Delhi and Beijing following the subsequent meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of key international summits such as the SCO Summit in Tianjin last year, where both leaders welcomed the positive momentum and steady progress in bilateral relations since their last meeting in Kazan in October 2024.They had reaffirmed that the two countries were development partners and not rivals, and that their differences should not turn into disputes.
"A stable relationship and cooperation between India and China and their 2.8 billion peoples on the basis of mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity are necessary for the growth and development of the two countries, as well as for a multipolar world and a multi-polar Asia befitting the trends of the 21st century," the Ministry of External Affairs noted in a statement after the meeting between the leaders.