Border peace essential basis for India-China ties: PM Modi to President Xi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit hosted in New Delhi on 12 September 2026.
The Prime Minister conveyed that peace and tranquillity along the border areas remains the essential basis for the continued development of India-China relations.
Both leaders welcomed the steady progress made in bilateral ties since their previous meeting on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin in August 2025, and committed to observing existing border agreements.
The two sides reaffirmed a "fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable" resolution of the boundary question, and agreed to take a strategic, long-term view of bilateral ties guided by mutual respect, mutual sensitivity, and mutual interest.
The Special Representatives (SR) Mechanism on the India-China Boundary Question
The SR Mechanism was established in 2003 to give the India-China boundary dispute a dedicated political-level negotiating channel, distinct from the older Joint Working Group (JWG) and expert-group structures set up after 1988. Special Representatives are politically empowered officials who report directly to their national leaderships, allowing the two sides to explore a package settlement across the western, middle, and eastern sectors rather than negotiating sector by sector.
The Modi-Xi affirmation that "border peace is the essential basis" for bilateral ties is the political endorsement, at the highest level, of the framework the SR Mechanism has been negotiating since 2003 — it signals continuity rather than a new initiative.
Boundary Question vs Settled Border: Why India-China Ties Are Structured Around "Differences, Not Disputes"
Unlike India's border with most neighbours, the India-China boundary has never been formally delimited or demarcated on the ground; both countries hold differing perceptions of where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) runs, particularly in the western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand/Himachal), and eastern (Arunachal Pradesh) sectors. This is why bilateral statements consistently distinguish "differences" (perceptual, resolvable through dialogue) from "disputes" (which would harden positions), a formulation both leaders repeated in September 2026.
Key Details
- The 1993 Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the LAC was the first bilateral instrument to formally reference the LAC as the operative line pending final settlement, without demarcating it.
- China does not recognise Arunachal Pradesh as part of India, calling it "South Tibet" — a live example of a "difference" the SR Mechanism seeks to manage rather than resolve unilaterally.
- India's stated official doctrine, reiterated at this meeting, is that peace and tranquillity at the border is a precondition — not a consequence — of normalising the broader relationship (trade, connectivity, people-to-people exchange).
The 2026 meeting's language ("differences should not become disputes," "strategic and long-term perspective") reflects this doctrinal continuity — India has consistently refused to delink border normalisation from the pace of overall bilateral engagement.
- The SR Mechanism was set up in 2003; the 25th round of talks took place in Beijing in August 2026.
- India's Special Representative: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval; China's: Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
- The 2005 Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles is the foundational document for the boundary settlement framework.
- The previous Modi-Xi bilateral meeting was on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, in August 2025.
- The BRICS Summit hosting this meeting was held in New Delhi in September 2026.