Ajit Doval, China's Yang Jiechi meet in Beijing amid Sikkim stand-off

Doval and other heads of delegations will also call on Chinese Prez Xi Jinping on Friday

Indian National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Kumar Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met in Beijing on Thursday on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting, amid an ongoing military stand-off between the two nations in the Sikkim area.

Yang also separately met his counterparts from South Africa and Brazil, according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. The report said bilateral relations, international and regional issues, multilateral affairs and “major problems” were discussed during the meetings. 

It did not say whether the Sikkim stand-off was raised during the Doval-Yang meeting. According to a PTI report, Indian officials in Beijing did not elaborate on the issues discussed between Doval and Yang, who are special representatives of their countries for the boundary talks.
 

Doval arrived in China on Wednesday for the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting hosted by Yang. A joint meeting of the NSAs will take place on Friday.

Doval and other heads of the delegations will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday evening. Doval’s visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of a solution to the more-than-a-month-long military stand-off in Dokalam area near the Bhutan trijunction.

In New Delhi, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said diplomatic channels were “functional” to resolve the ongoing stand-off in Dokalam in the Sikkim sector.

He did not reply to a question on whether there was any hope of a resolution during the Doval’s China visit. Baglay only said his visit was in the context of the BRICS meeting.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said the two sides have agreed to continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and address outstanding issues. 

Referring to talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Astana last month, he said both sides had agreed that Sino-India ties are a factor of stability at a time of global uncertainty.