3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Aug 25, 2026 10:25 PM IST
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng Tuesday and Beijing said it urged New Delhi to view and handle their relationship from a “strategic and long-term perspective” and “properly manage differences”.
New Delhi, however, said that Doval and Han discussed ways to strengthen peace and tranquillity in the border areas and further improve bilateral relations.
This was one of the key takeaways of the meeting between the NSA and the Chinese Vice President.
Han spent his career in Shanghai, under Xi Jinping and was CPC secretary of Shanghai during 2012-2017. He is considered a member of the powerful Shanghai Clique.
Doval’s meeting with Han and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are setting the stage for the possible visit by Xi to India for the summit of the BRICS leaders on September 12-13. Doval and Wang are the special representatives of their countries on the boundary issue.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval holds the 25th round of Special Representatives (SR) talks with China Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi, in Beijing, China. (Handout via PTI Photo)
China’s Ambassador to India, Xu Feihong, said, “Han Zheng stated that over the past two years, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi have met twice – in Kazan and Tianjin – and reached a series of important consensuses on the development of China-India relations, guiding the bilateral relationship back onto a track of recovery and improvement.”
“As neighbouring major developing nations and key emerging economies, China and India should view and handle their relationship from a strategic and long-term perspective; jointly implement the important consensuses reached by their leaders; enhance strategic mutual trust; tap into cooperation potential; strengthen multilateral coordination; properly manage differences; and promote the sustained and stable development of China-India relations,” he said.
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The Indian embassy in Beijing said, “NSA and VP Han discussed ways to strengthen peace and tranquillity in the border areas and further improve bilateral relations across economic, political and multilateral fora, in accordance with the consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries”.
Ahead of their talks, Doval told Wang: “I am happy that over the past year our relationship has been steadily returning to normalcy. The normalcy in our relationship has been a direct result of both sides maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas.”
In June last week, Wang visited India for the meeting of the BRICS NSAs. Meeting Doval on the sidelines, Wang underlined it was “imperative” for India and China to respect each other’s “core interests” and take concrete actions to implement the “important consensus” reached by both sides.