As a part of the continuing engagements to stabilise and restructure bilateral relations after the military disengagement in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India and China have agreed to restart a structured dialogue with the view to resolving some of the issues of concern in the trade and economic sphere.
This was decided in a meeting between the Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and the Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong, which took place in New Delhi on Thursday. The two sides also promised to speed up negotiations to restore direct air links that have been grounded since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Moreover, Sun also met with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, which indicated the significance of the visit even more.
The recent talks are among a round of high-level interactions since the two nations came to a consensus in October 2023 to disengage troops at the two remaining friction points along the LAC, after the long-running border stand-off that started at the beginning of 2020. The discussions are taking place against the backdrop of an increasingly alarmed India about China’s recent tightening of export controls on rare earth materials, which are important inputs in the production of electric vehicles (EVs) and other strategic industries.
Although the official readout by the external affairs ministry did not mention specifically the issues that were raised, sources privy to the development told a news agency that India brought up the subject of China restrictions on the export of rare earths, market accessibility to Indian products, and the increasing trade deficit -which has reached$99.2 billion in FY 2024-25.
Foreign Secretary Misri and Vice Minister Sun also looked at the progress of bilateral relations since their previous meeting in Beijing in January. They repeated the significance of people-based programs and collaboration on cross-border rivers, and there is hope that further development will be made on hydrological data exchange and other concerns.
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