Lessons should be learnt from Doklam standoff, says China

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Ahead of Friday’s India-China border talks, China has said that the Dokalam standoff posed a “major test” for the bilateral ties and lessons should be learnt from it to avoid a similar “conflict” in the future.

The 20th round of border talks between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and China’s State Councillor Yang Jiechi will be held in New Delhi on December 22, officials said. The two sides attach significance to this round of talks as it would be the first since the 73-day Doklam standoff in the Sikkim section which ended on August 28.

“This Special Representative meeting is not only a high- level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a media briefing.

This also allows the two sides to exchange views on the international and regional issues of major concern, she said. “In 2017, China-India relations have maintained a good momentum generally but the Dokalam incident posed a major test for the two countries. We should learn lessons from this incident to avoid any further conflict of this kind in the future,” Hua said.