India, China unveil raft of measures to fully realise their development potential

In a major thaw in their frosty ties, India and China on Tuesday unveiled a series of measures to forge a "stable, cooperative and forward-looking" relationship that included jointly maintaining peace along the frontier, reopening border trade, promoting investment flows, and resuming of direct flight connectivity at the earliest.

The announcements aimed at realising the full development potential of the two Asian giants came amid growing estrangement in ties between India and the US over President Donald Trump's policies on trade and tariff.

India and China listed the measures in a joint document after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval over the last two days besides meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The two sides agreed that they should earnestly implement the important common understandings reached between Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping and promote sustained, sound and steady development of India-China relations.

Wang landed in Delhi on Monday on a two-day visit and his trip is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.

The Doval-Wang talks under the framework of the Special Representatives dialogue on Tuesday produced five concere outcomes that included setting up an expert group, under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) to explore an "early harvest in boundary delimitation".

In the meeting, Doval and wang agreed on the need to take a political perspective of the overall bilateral relationship while seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for settlement of the boundary question in accordance with the agreement on political parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the boundary question signed in 2005.

They also agreed on setting up a working group, under the WMCC, to advance effective border management in order to maintain peace and tranquillity in India-China border areas.

Both sides also agreed to create a "general level mechanisms" in Eastern, and Middle sectors, in addition to the similar mechanism in Western sector, and holding an early meeting of the mechanism in the Western sector, according to a joint statement.

The two sides also agreed to use the border management mechanisms at diplomatic and military levels to carry forward the process of border management, and discuss de-escalation, beginning with the principles and modalities.