NSA Ajit Doval arrives in China to finalise Xi Jinping's visit to India

BEIJING: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived here today to firm up Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India expected to take place next week.

Doval will hold talks tomorrow with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi and is expected to meet Xi after that.

Dates for the visit of Xi, also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, have not yet been officially announced by both sides.

Doval's visit is taking place in the immediate backdrop of the cancellation of Xi's visit to Islamabad planned as part of his first visit to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India.

Initially, Xi was to pay a three-day visit to New Delhi from September 17.

Speculation is rife that in view of the cancellation of the visit to Pakistan, Xi may arrive in India earlier and may visit Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat before he lands in New Delhi.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who visited Beijing twice including early this month, has laid ground for Xi's visit by holding extensive talks with Chinese officials on the package of investments as well as measures to address India's concerns of trade deficit.

China-India are in discussions to modernise Indian railways.

China plans to invest in industrial parks, locations of which are expected to be announced by Xi.

Besides finalising the schedule, Doval's visit is expected to focus on the political aspects of Xi's tour, including issues related to the boundary dispute and new routes for Kailash and Manasarovar Yatra.

Yang is China's Special Representative for boundary negotiations held two rounds of talks with Doval's predecessor, Shivshankar Menon.

The two sides held 17 rounds of talks and reached a stage to focus on the framework to resolve the dispute.

The next stage was stated to be exchange of maps about the mutual perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Both the countries have signed Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) last year to ensure peace and tranquillity at the LAC pending the settlement of the border dispute.