Beijing, Dec 22 (IANS) As India and China held the 20th round of talks on their protracted border dispute on Friday, Beijing said it hoped that New Delhi will work with it in tandem to solve the vexed issue and make the most of the existing “mechanism” to iron out differences.
China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi met India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Friday for the latest round of talks during which the military stand-off at Doklam is understood to have come up.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry was not very forthcoming when asked what transpired at the parleys with spokesperson Hua Chunying saying both countries have made “tireless efforts” to solve the decades-old boundary dispute.
“State Councillor (Jiechi) is in India to exchange his views on the border affairs with his Indian counterpart (Doval). So these mechanisms are operating very well.
“We hope the Indian side will work with China to make the most of the current mechanism to uphold security and peace as well as tranquility in the border area so that we can create enabling conditions for the bilateral relations,” she added.
Hua cited the breakthrough meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Brics meeting at Xiamen and said Doval and Jiechi will work on the lines of consensus reached between the two leaders.
The talks also come amid reports of heightened Chinese military presence in Doklam area.
The Indian and Chinese armies were locked in a 73-day stand-off at Doklam in the Sikkim section of their border.
It all began when Indian troops stalled road building by their Chinese counterparts in Doklam, which is claimed by Bhutan and China.
Both sides decided to retreat from the point of face-off on August 28, days before the Brics summit in China.
Doklam is the new addition to a host of issues between India and China who fought a brief but bloody war in 1962 over their demarcated border.
India and China share a 3,448-kilometre long boundary which is divided into west, middle and east sections.
In the east, China claims India’s Arunachal Pradesh as its own while New Delhi lays claims to Aksai Chin occupied by Beijing in the west.