NSA Doval to meet Chinese counterpart in Beijing for 25th round of boundary talks
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is set to arrive in Beijing on Monday (August 24, 2026) to take part in the 25th round of India-China Special Representatives (SR) talks on the boundary issue. He will hold discussions with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on Tuesday (August 25), according to official sources.
The SR mechanism was established in 2003 to comprehensively address the long-standing boundary dispute along the 3,488 km India-China border. While the framework has not yielded a permanent resolution, officials on both sides view it as a useful tool to manage recurring tensions and maintain communication.
The upcoming talks hold significance as they take place ahead of the anticipated visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India for the BRICS summit, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on September 12 and 13. There has been no official confirmation of Mr. Xi's participation, but officials from both sides are optimistic. A possible visit could provide an opportunity for a meeting between Mr. Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the summit.
The two leaders last met in August 2025 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.
Ahead of the Doval-Wang talks, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar reiterated on Saturday (August 22, 2026) that peace and tranquillity along the border 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," Mr. Jaishankar said at the Economic Times World Leaders Forum in New Delhi. "At the end of the day, peace and tranquillity in the border areas is a prerequisite for good relations, and the state of the border, to a very large measure, naturally would determine the state of the relations," he added.
On the reports of increased Chinese military activity near the Arunachal Pradesh border, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on August 12 that the China-India border situation is "generally stable at the moment". He noted that India and China had held the 36th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs, and that the two sides had agreed to maintain communication via diplomatic and military channels.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated on August 11 that India regards matters relating to border areas with China as "most serious" and asserted that maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is of "utmost importance". He emphasised that the state of the frontier will govern the overall trajectory of bilateral ties.
Earlier, India rejected Beijing's criticism of its decision to formally identify 27 places and geographical features in Arunachal Pradesh by their standard names. India stressed that the state is an "inalienable and integral" part of the country. China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, has been releasing its own set of names for the region since 2017. India termed the Chinese move as "vain and preposterous", asserting that such actions will not alter the "undeniable" reality that the state "was, is, and will" always remain an integral part of India.
