NSA Ajit Doval arrives in China for BRICS meet; will Doklam border stand-off be resolved?

Beijing: Amid a prolonged stand-off over Doklam in the Sikkim region, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has arrived in China to attend the two-day BRICS meet beginning Thursday.

Doval arrived here yesterday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting.

However, with Chinese officials and their state media ratchetting up rhetoric against India, the chances of a meaningful dialogue between Doval and Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi is highly unlikely.

Despite throwing indications that a bilateral meet could take place between Doval and Yang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "We once again urge India to pull back its troops to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress again that this is the precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides."

As per reports, Ajit Doval will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. He will meet Xi along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

The BRICS meet comes at a time when the Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the tri-junction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.

As per PTI, the group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

China currently holds the Presidency of the BRICS and is due to hold 2017 summit of the five-member group in September at Xiamen city.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam.

Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

Though the BRICS NSAs meeting is scheduled for two days, it was open for the media only on July 28, the last day when the top security officials of the five countries will formally meeting to discuss on global governance, counter-terrorism, cyber security and energy security, international and regional hotspots, and national security and development.

Besides Doval and Yang, Minister of State Security David Mahlobo of South Africa, Minister Sergio Etchegoyen of the Office of Institutional Security of the Presidency of Brazil, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev of the Russian Federation would also attend the NSAs meeting.

Meanwhile, China had reiterated that no meaningful dialogue could be held with India until it 'unconditionally' withdraws troops from the Doklam area.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday had claimed that India  had 'admitted' to entering Chinese territory.

He said that India should 'conscientiously withdraw' its troops from the area.

"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don't have anything to explain," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

"I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into China?s territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," he added.

(With Agency inputs)