United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the latest agreement between India and China to improve relations between them and take positive steps on border issues, his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday. "We welcome the positive result of this effort of bilateral — a very important bilateral — diplomacy," he said.
He added that settling international disputes through bilateral efforts should be "saluted". After a gap of five years, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi came together in Beijing on Monday for a formal Meeting of the Special Representatives, a regular high-level consultation that was suspended after the 2020 military conflict between the neighbours. India's External Affairs Ministry said after the meeting, "They agreed on the salience of stable, predictable, and amicable India-China relations for regional and global peace and prosperity."
"Besides, they provided positive guidance for cross-border cooperation and exchange, including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, data sharing on trans-border rivers and border trade," it added. According to Dujarric, the resumption of regular high-level meeting followed agreement between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping in Kazan in October. International disputes that aren't resolved get the headlines round the world, while several do get resolved, says Dujarric.
"There are many international disputes that do get resolved, either through UN mediation or through bilateral information, bilateral efforts. Those should be covered and saluted," he said. India and China on Wednesday decided to give "positive directions" for cross-border cooperation and exchanges, including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, data sharing on trans-border rivers and border trade, during the visit of National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval to Beijing.
The event occurred after the 23rd meeting of the SRs of India and China in which NSA Doval along with Wang Yi- member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee as well as China's minister for foreign affairs- met.
It was the first such meeting between the Special Representatives since frictions had come to the fore in 2020 in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas.
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