Context: The 25th round of talks between the Special Representatives (SRs), India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, produced an eight-point consensus.
- The outcome is significant ahead of the expected visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India for the 2026 BRICS Summit.
- The discussions seek to simultaneously maintain peace and tranquillity along the border, improve border management and advance negotiations towards a framework for settling the boundary question.
Key Outcomes of the Talks
- Both sides agreed to work towards maintaining peace and tranquillity in border areas and advancing negotiations based on earlier bilateral agreements.
- An Expert Group and Working Group will take forward discussions on:
- An “early harvest” of boundary delimitation in appropriate sectors.
- More effective border management.
- The two sides also agreed to implement an earlier understanding to establish additional Senior/Highest Military Commander-level meetings in the Eastern and Middle sectors, similar to the existing mechanism at Chushul-Moldo in the Western sector.
- Two additional military hotlines are to be established in the Eastern and Middle sectors, providing direct communication channels to manage local tensions.
- The implementation of these mechanisms will need to be handled carefully to ensure that they actually contribute to confidence-building.
Understanding the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
- The Line of Actual Control (LAC) separates areas under Indian and Chinese control, but it is not a mutually demarcated international boundary.
- For operational and negotiating purposes, the LAC is divided into three sectors:
- Western Sector: Ladakh
- Middle Sector: Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand
- Eastern Sector: Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh
- Differences over the alignment of the LAC remain a major source of friction between India and China.
Evolution of Border Confidence-Building Mechanisms
1. Joint Working Group and Expert Group
- In 1992, the Joint Working Group (JWG) on the Boundary Question decided to establish mechanisms for greater military contact.
- Following the 1993 Border Peace and Tranquillity Agreement (BPTA), an Expert Group comprising Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military officials was established.
- This Expert Group later became a precursor to the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), established in 2012 as an institutional mechanism for border management.
2. Border Personnel Meetings (BPMs)
- After progress on disengagement at Sumdorong Chu in 1995, additional military meeting points were identified at Lipulekh in the Middle Sector and Dichu in the Eastern Sector.
- The proposed Lipulekh BPM was abandoned because of inadequate infrastructure and adverse weather.
- A trial BPM at Dichu in Arunachal Pradesh was also finalised, but the location became contentious and subsequent meetings could not take place.
- The proposal for additional BPM points was revived in 2014, eventually leading to regular meetings at Wacha/Kibithu, opposite Damai on the Chinese side, alongside the existing Bum La mechanism.
3. Existing Communication Mechanisms
- Existing BPMs and communication channels have helped maintain direct military contact and reduce the possibility of local incidents escalating.
- Important mechanisms include meetings across the Lungnak Lungpa stream near Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) and Tianwendian (TWD), as well as the Chushul-Moldo meeting point near the Spanggur Gap.
- Existing hotlines operate at places such as DBO and Chushul, while other communication arrangements exist around Demchok, Nathu La, Bum La and Kibithu.
- The proposed additional hotlines for the Eastern and Middle sectors can strengthen real-time communication and help defuse local tensions.
4. Broader Improvement in India–China Relations
- The Special Representatives are working to implement the political understanding reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Kazan in October 2024 and Tianjin in August 2025 to improve bilateral relations.
- The resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, direct flights and border trade represents meaningful movement towards normalisation.
- These measures can create a more favourable environment for addressing difficult border issues.
Why Substantive Boundary Settlement Remains Difficult
- The reference to an “early and substantial harvest of boundary delimitation” should not be interpreted as evidence that comprehensive boundary delimitation has already begun.
- The Expert Group and Working Group are still required to finalise their respective Terms of Reference, indicating that the institutional framework itself is still being operationalised.
- Consequently, progress is likely to be incremental, rather than an immediate comprehensive settlement.
- A major challenge is whether negotiations should pursue sector-wise/piecemeal settlements or address differences along the entire LAC through a more holistic framework.
- Even the Sikkim and Middle sectors, often considered relatively less contentious than the Western Sector, continue to have unresolved differences.
Way Forward
- Negotiators need sufficient political empowerment, experience and institutional capacity to address a dispute that has remained unresolved across generations.
- Military communication mechanisms, hotlines and BPMs should be strengthened as confidence-building measures (CBMs) while negotiations continue.
- Incremental improvements in border management should be accompanied by sustained efforts towards a mutually acceptable boundary settlement.
- Political guidance from the leadership of both countries can help create conditions for lasting border peace and broader bilateral cooperation.
- The India–China boundary issue illustrates the distinction between LAC management, disengagement, de-escalation and final boundary settlement; progress in one does not automatically imply progress in the others.
- Institutional mechanisms such as the WMCC, Special Representatives mechanism, BPMs and military hotlines are important tools of confidence-building and crisis management even when the underlying territorial dispute remains unresolved.
