Top Chinese and Indian officials have held meetings in Beijing amid a tense border stand-off in the Himalayas..
Top Chinese and Indian officials have held meetings in Beijing amid a tense border stand-off in the Himalayas.
Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday met India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval during his session with Brics security officials, while Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi met Mr Doval during the group’s meetings on Thursday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
The Brics officials were in Beijing for meetings ahead of the organisation’s summit in China in September. Brics gathers five emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The meetings with Mr Doval were the first high-level ones involving China and India since the dispute began last month in a mountainous border area near Bhutan.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Mr Yang exchanged views separately on Thursday with the officials of India, South Africa and Brazil on bilateral relations, international and regional issues, and multilateral affairs.
Analysts said the current border stand-off between China and India is the result of strategic mistrust, particularly on the part of India.
Professor Jia Qingguo of Peking University noted that the row was not a direct border dispute between China and India but rather one between China and Bhutan.
But “India thinks it affects its sphere of influence and therefore, it wants to intervene”, he said.
Bhutan is a tiny Himalayan kingdom on the north-eastern border of India under New Delhi’s influence, with the two sides having signed a treaty in 1949 under which they are to consult closely on Bhutan’s foreign policy and defence.
But, said India expert Yu Longyu of Shenzhen University, a road that China is building in the disputed Donglang plateau – Doklam to India – “will bring China closer to Bhutan”, something the Indians do not want to see.
