India, China hold border talks

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, the special rRepresentative for the India-China boundary talks, on Monday sat down with his Chinese counterpart, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, for the 18th round of border talks here.

Doval and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, a former Indian envoy to China, are among the Indian team holding talks with the Chinese delegation at Hyderabad House to resolve the dispute over the around 4,000-km boundary.

The boundary question has seen several incidents of face-offs between the troops of both countries, especially with Chinese troops intruding into the Indian side.

This is the first time that Doval is chairing the key talks as special representative. It is also the Narendra Modi government's first shot at the border talks since it came to power last May.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted: "India-China delegations led by Nat Security Adviser Doval & State Councillor Yang Jiechi talk on Boundary Question." There was also a photograph of the two delegations.

Yang, who arrived here on Sunday night, is to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday before he leaves.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, during her visit to Beijing in February, had said that the Modi government "is committed to exploring an early settlement".

Yang's visit also comes ahead of Modi's visit to China, planned for May.

Yang has held the previous round of talks on the long running boundary question with then NSA Shivshankar Menon.