Amid Sikkim standoff, India NSA Ajit Doval calls on Chinese President Xi Jinping

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and other top security czars of the BRICS nations on Friday called on Chinese President Xi Jinping, who praised their efforts in enhancing mutual trust and cooperation despite the vast geographical distance among the member nations.

The meeting comes amid a standoff between China and India in Dokalam area in the Sikkim sector.

After day-long deliberations over improving cooperation in a number of areas, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) NSAs met Xi and interacted with him.

Xi, in his address to the BRICS NSAs, praised them for building a mutual trust and cooperation among the member nations.

“Every minister has done a great job for improving our mutual trust and security cooperation. I sincerely thank for all your efforts,” Xi who is heading the BRICS group this year said about the deliberations by the NSAs today on host of security related issues.

“I think the meeting was carried out well. In order to promote the strategic mutual trust of the BRICS countries, security cooperation, all of you have made a lot of effort,” he said.

The BRICS cooperation has 10 years of history and the five-member group of emerging countries have carried on meaningful cooperation despite geographical distance and different political systems establishing a new type of international relations, the Chinese president said.

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While the starting point of BRICS cooperation is in the economic and financial field in its first decade, in view of the complex international political and economic security situation, the member countries should expand cooperation with more people-to-people contacts, cultural exchanges and coordinate on security issues, he said.

In the meeting, China’s State Councillor Yang Jiechi underlined that the member countries should take on forward looking attitudes to forge shared interests and a shared future, and enhance strategic mutual trust and practical cooperation.

“BRICS countries should strengthen their collaboration and coordination on major global and regional issues to provide wisdom and efforts of BRICS for resolving the issues, Yang said.

He also called for maintaining international order based on the Charter of the United Nations, sticking to multi-lateralise and improving global governance.

During the meeting, the parties exchanged views on global governance, anti-terrorism, Internet, energy security, major global and regional hot issues as well as national security and development, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The five parties agreed to strengthen the role of the meeting on security issues, promote BRICS cooperation on politics and security, push for a more equitable and reasonable global order and realise a more fair and universally beneficial and inclusive globalisation.

They also agreed on closer coordination and exchanges to advance the security and development of BRICS countries, Xinhua reported.

China yesterday acknowledged that Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang met on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs meet during which they discussed “major problems” in bilateral ties. However, China made no mention of the Doklam standoff.

Since the standoff began on June 16, China has been maintaining that there will not be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops.

In today’s meetings, there were no handshakes in front of the media between Chinese officials and the BRICS NSAs.