NEW DELHI: In another round of diplomatic engagement on the border issue, India and China had “frank discussions” and reviewed the situation along the line of actual control (LAC), with the former underlining that maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas is essential for the development of bilateral relations.The Indian side also reiterated the need for early convening of the next meeting of the Expert Level Mechanism on trans-border rivers, which was established in 2006, and emphasised the importance of sharing technical details on upstream projects.Following the recent announcement of a mega dam project by China, India has been raising the need for transparency and consultation with downstream countries on such upstream activities.According to the Indian govt, as a lower riparian state with established user rights to the waters of trans-border rivers, India routinely conveys its views and concerns to the Chinese authorities, and has urged them to ensure that the interests of downstream states are not harmed by activities in upstream areas. India has repeatedly stressed resumption of the provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers.The 36th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) on Thursday saw both sides agreeing to continue using existing diplomatic and military channels, including the WMCC, local commander-level meetings and other agreed mechanisms, to resolve outstanding issues and avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation along the LAC.
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An Indian readout also said that as a follow up to the outcomes of the 24th Special Representative talks on the boundary question last year, the two sides held detailed exchanges on issues related to boundary delimitation, border management, mechanism-building and trans-border cooperation.During SR talks, both sides had agreed to setting up an Expert Group, under WMCC, to explore Early Harvest in boundary delimitation in the India-China border areas. They had agreed to advance effective border management to maintain peace and tranquillity in respective border areas.
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