Doval arrives in Beijing for boundary talks

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Monday afternoon for a two-day visit at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to a press release from India's Ministry of External Affairs. The visit sets the stage for the 25th round of Special Representatives (SR) talks on the India-China boundary question, scheduled for Tuesday.

The ministry's release confirmed that Doval, India's Special Representative on the boundary question, and Wang, China's Special Representative, will hold the talks on August 25. The release also noted that Doval will call on China's Vice President Han Zheng during his visit.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the talks in a post on X, stating that Wang Yi, in his capacity as China's Special Representative, will co-chair the 25th round with Doval in Beijing.

The meeting follows a June encounter between Doval and Wang on the sidelines of the BRICS National Security Advisers' meeting in New Delhi. India's Ministry of External Affairs described those discussions as "constructive and forward-looking," with spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal saying the two sides reviewed recent developments in bilateral relations and noted progress towards "gradual normalisation."

Mechanism and context

The SR mechanism was established in 2003 to comprehensively address the boundary dispute along the 3,488-km India-China border. While the mechanism has not resolved the dispute, officials on both sides regard it as a useful channel for managing recurring tensions, as reported by multiple outlets including ANI and The Hindu.

The talks come ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's expected visit to India for the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13. There is no official confirmation of Xi's participation, but officials on both sides are optimistic, according to reports citing official sources. If confirmed, the visit would be Xi's first to India in seven years, raising the possibility of a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines.

Modi and Xi last met in August 2025 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, where they reaffirmed that India and China are "development partners, not rivals," as reported in several accounts. The two leaders also met in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, following an understanding on ending the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh.

Border situation and official positions

The talks are being held against the backdrop of recent reports of aggressive posturing by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri region. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, speaking at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in New Delhi on Saturday, reiterated that "peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a prerequisite for good relations," adding that India and China went through "a particularly bad patch between the summer of 2020 and the autumn of 2024, primarily an outcome of the situation in the border areas."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on August 12 that the border situation is "generally stable at the moment," and noted that the two sides held the 36th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs on August 6, agreeing to maintain communication via diplomatic and military channels.

Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on August 11 that India considers border matters with China as "most serious" and that maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is of "utmost importance," as the state of the frontier will govern the overall trajectory of bilateral ties.

India also rejected Beijing's criticism of its decision to formally identify 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard names, asserting that the state is an "inalienable and integral" part of India. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet and has released its own set of names for places in the region since 2017. India dismissed China's naming as "vain and preposterous," according to reports.

Previous rounds and mechanisms

The previous round of SR talks was held in New Delhi in August 2025, where both sides reaffirmed the 2005 Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question as a reference point. Following those talks, the two sides established an expert group to explore an "early harvest" in boundary delimitation and announced a working group under the WMCC for effective border management.

The 2005 agreement called for a package solution covering all sectors of the boundary and included a commitment that neither side shall use or threaten to use force. After the agreement, India and China exchanged maps for Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Sikkim, but not for Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, as reported by The Tribune.

Since then, there have been multiple military standoffs, including Depsang in 2013, Chumur in 2014, Doklam in 2017, and the Eastern Ladakh standoff that began in April 2020. The Galwan clash in June 2020 was the first fatal clash between Indian and Chinese troops in decades, and troops exchanged fire in Eastern Ladakh that year for the first time in nearly six decades, according to The Tribune.

Experts weigh in

Foreign affairs expert Waiel Awwad told ANI that Doval's visit "is a very strong message by India letting the National Security Advisor go to Beijing," indicating India's readiness for good relations with China provided the border remains quiet and disputes are resolved before economic trust-building measures. Awwad added that stable India-China relations are important for stabilising Asia amid geopolitical changes.

Robinder Sachdev, another foreign affairs expert, told ANI that the visit comes at a very important time ahead of the BRICS summit and that it is time for both India and China to address the boundary issue honestly while keeping communication channels open.