In what is seen as a sign that New Delhi and Beijing have agreed to put the tense 73-day border standoff at Doklam earlier this year behind them, the 10th round of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs was held in Beijing on 17 November. According to the standard MEA release, “Both sides reviewed the situation in all sectors of India-China border and agreed that maintenance of peace ... in the border is an important prerequisite for sustained growth of bilateral relations … They also exchanged views on … strengthening of military-to-military contacts.”
However, no mention was made of India’s long-standing request for a hotline between the military headquarters of the two nations to prevent local commanders on the border from taking unilateral action. The meeting is the first high-level interaction between the nations after Indian PM Narendra Modi and the Chinese President Xi Jinping met at the BRICS summit in Xiamen early September, where both sides pledged to put down, if not bury the hatchet.
Both sides felt the need for “closer communication between the defense and security personnel of India and China,” Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said after the two leaders met. Xi, on his part, reportedly described the two nations as “each other’s important neighbour,” and said the two should focus on “seeking common ground ... in our border areas” to bring the bilateral relationship “on a right track,” under the “guidance of Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence”.
Many saw the meeting as a display of significant diplomatic maturity by both sides, which would not only de-escalate the border tension, but allow both sides to step up bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Though issues like the CPEC corridor through Pakistan, China’s persistent blocking of Indian efforts to join the NSG and to declare Masood Azhar a terrorist by the UN continue to plague the relationship, the meeting in Beijing over the border is one small step in the right direction.