Ajit Doval reaches Beijing for India-China border talks ahead of BRICS summit

Beijing,UPDATED: Aug 24, 2026 15:40 IST

Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on August 24 for a two-day visit to take part in the Special Representatives talks on the India-China boundary question with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The talks are scheduled at a time when questions remain over Chinese President Xi Jinping's much-anticipated visit to India for the BRICS summit on September 12-13.

The meeting also comes as differences over the border and Arunachal Pradesh continue to weigh on ties between New Delhi and Beijing. Relations had come under severe strain after the 2020 Galwan Valley clash and the prolonged military stand-off in eastern Ladakh, though both sides have since taken steps to stabilise them.

Announcing the talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said Doval and Wang would have an in-depth discussion on the boundary question as well as bilateral, regional and international issues. He said the China-India Special Representatives talks are the main channel for negotiations on the boundary issue and also an important platform for communication on matters of mutual interest.

Lin said the two sides had successfully held the 24th round of talks in August last year, during which they had candid and in-depth exchanges on the boundary question and reached a number of common understandings. He said the upcoming meeting, the 25th round, would continue in-depth communication on the boundary question in the spirit of the common understandings between the leaders of the two countries to jointly keep the border areas peaceful and tranquil. He added that the two sides would also exchange views on bilateral relations and international and regional issues.

Doval and Wang are the designated Special Representatives under the mechanism set up in 2003 to comprehensively address the dispute over the 3,488-km India-China border. Though the mechanism has not resolved the boundary dispute, officials on both sides regard it as a useful tool to deal with recurring tensions. Besides attending the talks, Doval will also call on China's Vice President Han Zheng, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Lin also avoided questions on Xi's possible visit to New Delhi for the BRICS summit next month. While there is no official confirmation yet, officials on both sides remain optimistic about his participation, which could provide an opportunity for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the summit to discuss steps to take forward bilateral ties. Modi and Xi last met in August 2025 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.

Ahead of the Doval-Wang meeting, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday reiterated that "peace and tranquillity" in the border areas are a prerequisite for good relations with China. His remarks came amid reports of aggressive posturing by Chinese troops in Arunachal Pradesh's Upper Subansiri region in recent weeks. "I think we went through a particularly bad patch between the summer of 2020 and the autumn of 2024, and that was primarily an outcome of the situation in the border areas," Jaishankar said at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in New Delhi.

On reports of increased Chinese military activity near the Arunachal Pradesh border, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on August 12 that the China-India border situation is "generally stable at the moment". On August 11, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India considers matters relating to border areas with China as "most serious" and asserted that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control is of "utmost importance", as the state of the frontier will govern the overall trajectory of bilateral ties.

Earlier, New Delhi rejected Beijing's criticism of its decision to formally identify 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard names, saying the state is an "inalienable and integral" part of India and that nothing can change this "indisputable reality". China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, has been releasing its own set of names for the region since 2017. India has described that move as "vain and preposterous" and said it would not alter the "undeniable" reality that the state "was, is, and will" always remain an integral part of India.

Overall, Doval's Beijing visit and the 25th round of Special Representatives talks come at a time when both sides are trying to manage boundary tensions, while broader ties remain linked to peace along the border and to developments ahead of the BRICS summit.

With PTI Inputs

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