New Delhi: Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will visit Beijing on January 26 and 27 for a meeting of the Foreign Secretary-Vice Minister mechanism between India and China. Ministry of External Affairs said in a release that the resumption of this bilateral mechanism flows from the agreement at the leadership level to discuss the next steps for India-China relations, including in the political, economic, and people-to-people domains. India and China had reached an agreement in October on patrolling arrangements in the Depsang Plains and Demchok, two friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The understanding was reached after earlier disengagement in other friction points in eastern Ladakh following meetings at diplomatic and military levels. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his remarks in Parliament in December last year that the conclusion of disengagement has set the bilateral ties "in the direction of some improvement". Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS Summit at Kazan on October 23, 2024. PM Modi had welcomed the agreement for complete disengagement and resolution of issues that arose in 2020 in the India-China border areas and underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquillity. The two leaders agreed that the Special Representatives on the India-China boundary question will meet at an early date to oversee the management of peace and tranquillity in border areas and to explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question. The two leaders had also affirmed that stable, predictable, and amicable bilateral relations between India and China, as two neighbours and the two largest nations on earth, will have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity. The two leaders had underlined the need to progress bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, enhance strategic communication, and explore cooperation to address developmental challenges. Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China NSA Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs, met in Beijing on December 18 last year.
