Beijing Talks: India Pushes For Pre-2020 LAC Status As Buffer Zone Debate Continues

National security advisor Ajit Doval landed in Beijing on Monday for a two-day visit that will culminate in the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Tuesday, as the two countries continue efforts to stabilise their border relationship following years of tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Doval travelled to Beijing at the invitation of Wang, who also serves as China’s foreign minister and Special Representative on the boundary question. During his visit, Doval is also expected to call on China’s vice-president, Han Zheng.

China’s foreign ministry confirmed the schedule in a social media post, noting that Wang Yi would co-chair the dialogue.

The talks are expected to cover the full range of unresolved LAC issues, including the delineation of buffer zones and patrolling arrangements in areas where troops have disengaged but have not yet returned to pre-standoff positions.

Sources indicated that the buffer zone question would remain central to Doval-Wang Yi’s meeting agenda.

The dialogue follows the resolution of the standoffs at Depsang and Demchok in October 2024, achieved after the 22nd round of talks between the two armies’ corps commanders. So far 23 rounds of military talks have been held since the crisis began in May 2020.

Although patrolling resumed at Depsang and Demchok in November 2024, the buffer zones established during disengagement at five other friction points – Galwan, Gogra, Hot Springs, and the north and south banks of Pangong Tso – remain in place.

India has maintained that troop positions at these locations should eventually revert to their status before May 2020. However, officials on both sides acknowledge that de-induction will depend on a longer process of confidence-building and de-escalation.

Diplomatic channels have run in parallel with the military talks. The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), established in 2012 to manage day-to-day border communication, has met 36 times, most recently on August 6 in New Delhi, where the Indian delegation was led by Sujit Ghosh, joint secretary for east Asia at the ministry of external affairs, and the Chinese side by Hou Yanqi, director general of the boundary and oceanic affairs department.

The MEA said the two sides had held frank discussions and agreed to continue using existing diplomatic and military mechanisms to avoid misunderstanding along the border.

The meeting also carries added weight because of its timing. It comes ahead of the BRICS summit due to be hosted by New Delhi on September 12-13, which Chinese president Xi Jinping is widely expected to attend, though neither government has formally confirmed his participation.

The visit would mark a further step in the gradual normalisation of ties between the two countries since the 2020 clash in eastern Ladakh, and follows recent, largely dismissed, Indian allegations of Chinese incursions near Arunachal Pradesh.

Speaking in Delhi on Saturday, the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, described the period between the summer of 2020 and the autumn of 2024 as a particularly difficult phase in the relationship, one driven chiefly by the situation on the border.

He further reiterated that peace and tranquillity along the LAC remained a prerequisite for the broader normalisation of ties, adding that the state of the border would continue to shape the state of the relationship as a whole.