China Says it is Ready to Work with India Ahead of Crucial Doval-Wang Meeting

China is ready to work with India to get bilateral ties back on track "as soon as possible," the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday, ahead of key talks between India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the India-China Special Representatives' meeting on Wednesday.

On the eve of the first border talks between the nuclear-armed rivals since December 2019 in Beijing, Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, made the statement.

According to ANI, the spokeswoman stated that China is prepared to work with India to put into practice the significant agreements that our leaders have reached, respect one another's fundamental interests and concerns, build mutual trust through communication and dialogue, appropriately resolve disagreements in good faith and with sincerity, and quickly return bilateral relations to a stable and healthy development path.

Doval-Wang discussions: What's on the agenda?

Ajit Doval, India's National Security Advisor, came on Tuesday for meetings with China's Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, at the 23rd Special Representatives Meeting. They serve as Special Representatives for their respective countries.

Meetings between Doval and Wang after December 2019 have focused on multilateral topics rather than boundary resolution.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi stated that the two representatives will discuss border security and seek a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable settlement to the boundary dispute.

In October, India and China agreed on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in border areas. The border stalemate began in May 2020, following Chinese military actions in India's eastern Ladakh.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament last week that India and China's disengagement in eastern Ladakh had been "fully achieved" through a "step-by-step process," culminating in Depsang and Demchok.

Indian-Chinese border standoff

The military standoff at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020, and a deadly clash in Galwan Valley in June of the same year strained India-China relations significantly. Aside from trade, relations between the two countries ground to a standstill.

The standoff was formally concluded on October 21 when the disengagement process was completed at the last two friction areas, Demchok and Depsang, as agreed upon.

Wednesday's meeting of Special Representatives (SRs) is significant since it is the first formal dialogue between the two countries aimed at repairing relations. This gathering comes five years after the last SRs meeting in Delhi in 2019.

The SRs mechanism, established in 2003 to resolve the 3,488-kilometer-long India-China boundary dispute, has convened 22 times. While it has not yet addressed the boundary dispute, both parties see it as a useful instrument for managing periodic tensions between the two countries.