India and China on Tuesday, 25 August 2026, announced that they had discussed advancing talks on delimiting parts of the disputed border.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing for the 25th round of Special Representatives’ talks on the boundary question.

A statement from the Indian Embassy in Beijing said both sides had discussed ways to expand bilateral cooperation, maintain stability, ensure peace and tranquillity in the border areas, and make progress on boundary delimitation while sustaining ongoing work on transboundary cooperation.

China’s Foreign Ministry also highlighted progress on border delimitation in its statement. It said both sides held in‑depth discussions on advancing border delimitation negotiations, strengthening border management and control, improving mechanism building, and promoting cross‑border cooperation.

Neither side provided details on which parts of the Line of Actual Control were being explored for possible delimitation. At last year’s Special Representatives’ talks, both sides agreed to set up a working group to explore “early harvest” border delimitation in some areas along the LAC.

Wang Yi said that besides resuming the Special Representatives’ talks last year, institutional mechanisms between the two countries were resuming. He noted that both sides had been working hard to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

At last year’s talks, both sides reached a set of common understandings on delimitation, border management, mechanism building, and cross‑border cooperation.

He added that over the past year, both sides had worked to deliver these understandings on the ground and had made good progress. The Chinese statement said the two sides reaffirmed their commitment to the 2005 Political Guiding Principles and, in a spirit of mutual respect and mutual understanding, would leverage the Special Representatives’ mechanism to pursue a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable package solution to the boundary question.

Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, who is also a Politburo member, spent several hours together on Tuesday. They first held small group discussions lasting more than 90 minutes, followed by larger delegation‑level talks in the evening. Earlier in the day, Doval called on Chinese Vice‑President Han Zheng.

Both sides were positive in their descriptions of the ongoing normalisation of relations. Doval said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had given a clear and positive direction to the India‑China relationship, which had been steadily returning to normalcy.

He noted that this round of talks was very important, particularly in the wake of the BRICS Summit to be held shortly. Xi Jinping is expected to attend the summit in New Delhi on 12 September, marking his first visit to India in seven years.

Doval expressed satisfaction that over the past year the relationship had been steadily returning to normalcy. He said the normalcy witnessed was a direct result of both sides maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas.

He added that both sides extensively discussed how to reinforce and consolidate efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity along the frontier.

The Chinese statement quoted Wang Yi as saying that China and India should draw lessons from history, place the boundary question appropriately in bilateral relations, and keep moving forward without stagnating, backtracking, or veering off course.

He called for gradually building a positive narrative on China‑India boundary affairs, making dialogue, peace, consultation, and cooperation the mainstream, and injecting positive factors into the sound and stable development of bilateral relations.

Wang Yi further said China stood ready to work with India to guide bilateral relations from a strategic and long‑term perspective, enhance communication, deepen mutual understanding, resolve differences, overcome obstacles, become good‑neighbourly friends and mutually beneficial partners, and achieve the “Dragon‑Elephant Dance.”

He emphasised that the China‑India relationship had gone beyond the bilateral scope and taken on global and strategic significance.

Agencies