United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the latest agreement between India and China to improve relations between them and take positive steps on border issues, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said and added that settling international disputes through bilateral efforts should be “saluted”.

“We welcome the positive result of this effort of bilateral – a very important bilateral – diplomacy”, he said.

After a gap of five years, India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi came together in Beijing on Monday for a formal meeting of the Special Representatives, a regular high-level consultation that was suspended after the 2020 military conflict between the neighbours.

India’s External Affairs Ministry said after the meeting, “They agreed on the salience of stable, predictable, and amicable India-China relations for regional and global peace and prosperity”.

“They provided positive directions for cross-border cooperation and exchanges including resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, data sharing on trans-border rivers and border trade”, it added. 

The resumption of the regular high-level meeting followed an agreement between Prime Minister Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia in October. 

Dujarric said that international disputes that don’t get resolved get the headlines around the world while many do get resolved.

“There are a lot of international disputes that do get resolved, either through UN mediation or through bilateral information, bilateral efforts. Those should be covered and saluted”, he said.

(The author is Nonresident Fellow, Society for Policy Studies. Views are personal)