China-India border dispute 'not in either side's interest', foreign ministers agree

China and India should double their efforts to resolve their differences and resume normal ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed on Thursday.

The two ministers reached the consensus during a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, four years after a border dispute erupted in a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley.

The foreign ministers agreed that "prolongation of the current situation in the border areas is not in either side's interest", and meetings between diplomatic and military officials should be improved to "resolve the remaining issues at the earliest", the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said.

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Wang said China and India were both part of the Global South and emerging economies, and should "explore a correct way to get along with each other", according to the Chinese foreign ministry statement on the talks.

"We must appropriately address and control the situation in the border areas, and actively resume normal exchanges," Wang said.

He added that the two sides should "join hands to oppose unilateral bullying and bloc confrontation and safeguard the common interests of developing countries". The comment was an apparent veiled reference to the US' geopolitical containment of China under its Indo-Pacific strategy, in which New Delhi plays an important role.

Meanwhile, Jaishankar wrote on his X account that he and Wang agreed that "respecting the LAC (Line of Actual Control) and ensuring peace and tranquillity in the border areas is essential" and the two countries would "redouble efforts through diplomatic and military channels to that end".

"The three mutuals - mutual respect, mutual sensitivity and mutual interest - will guide our bilateral ties," he wrote.

China and India share thousands of kilometres of an undetermined border in the Himalayas.

Since they fought a brief war in 1962, an unofficial LAC has served as a loose ceasefire line but conflict has broken out over the years, the most serious being the Galwan Valley clash in June, 2020 in which at least four Chinese and 20 Indian soldiers were killed.

Since then, the two sides have held marathon talks on de-escalation, including a few meetings between Wang and Jaishankar.

The latest meeting was the 21st round of corps commander-level talks between the frontline officers of the two militaries in February, but the negotiations remained deadlocked.

Beijing and New Delhi have both stressed the need for peace and tranquillity on the border and the hope to "turn the page" over the dispute.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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