India and China express satisfaction over maintaining peace and tranquility in border areas

New Delhi ( The Indian View team) :

India and China reviewed the situation in border areas and expressed satisfaction with progress made in maintaining peace and tranquillity. The two countries reviewed the situation during the 35th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC). The meeting was held yesterday in Beijing.

The Indian delegation was led by Joint Secretary (East Asia), Sujit Ghosh and the Chinese delegation was led by Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Affairs Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hou Yanqi.

The Ministry of External Affairs said that the discussions were constructive and forward looking. The two sides discussed issues pertaining to delimitation, border management, mechanism building and cross-border cooperation. The Ministry said that the Indian side stressed on early meeting of the next Expert Level Mechanism on Trans-border Rivers.

During the meeting, both sides agreed to maintain regular exchanges and contacts at the diplomatic and military levels through mechanisms including those that were agreed upon as part of outcomes of 24th Special Representatives (SR) Talks.

They also agreed to work together to make substantive preparation for the next meeting of the SR to be held in China. The Indian delegation leader met Director General of Department of Asian Affairs of Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Liu Jinsong and made a courtesy call on Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hong Lei.