National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is scheduled to be in Beijing on Monday to take part in the Special Representatives (SR) talks on the boundary issue with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi.Doval and Wang are the designated SR’s of the two countries and are scheduled to hold the 25th round of talks on Tuesday, sources confirmed. The SR’s are tasked to sort out the vexed boundary alignment between the two countries.This will be first meeting of the SR’s in one year, the previous round was conducted in New Delhi in August last year and it had reiterated the 2005 agreement named ‘Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question’ as a reference point to comprehensively address the boundary dispute. The two countries do not have a demarcated boundary and armed troops guard their positions which is called the Line of Actual Control (LAC) spanning 3,488 km.An ‘expert group’ was set up to “explore an early harvest in boundary delimitation”. The reference to the two-decade old agreement for resolving the contentious boundary, means the two neighbours need to take a tough political call to take things forward.Also, as a measure to overcome any breaches at the LAC, the two countries in August last year announced a ‘working group’ under the existing ‘Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC)’. It is tasked with effective border management to maintain peace and tranquillity in border areas.Post the last SR meeting, the Ministry of External Agreement (MEA) had issued a statement on describing the meeting. It had cited the 2005 agreement and said, the two sides would work in line with agreement and added there was a need to take a ‘political perspective’ of the overall bilateral relationship ‘seeking a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable framework for settlement of the boundary question’.The 2005 agreement spoke about a ‘package solution.. covering all sectors of the India-China boundary. Analysts said the expert group was studying the ‘early harvest proposal’ for demarcation of the boundary in Sikkim, adding even if a final boundary agreement is comprehensive, it will necessarily have to be arrived at step by step.”The 2005 agreement lays the groundwork for negotiations. It would need a political call to take things forward. The agreement had said “both sides should, make meaningful and mutually acceptable adjustments to their respective positions on the boundary question, so as to arrive at a package settlement to the boundary question.”Historically, the agreement of 2005 had come about after India and China had exchanged maps on their perceptions of the boundary. Maps defining the boundary in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim were exchanged. Beijing, however, resiled on the commitment and maps of Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh were not exchanged.No disturbance to settled populationThe agreement of 2005 had said the two countries will take into account, historical evidence, national sentiments, practical difficulties and reasonable concerns and sensitivities of both sides, and the actual state of border areas.“In reaching a boundary settlement, the two sides shall safeguard interests of their settled populations border areas”, it said. This would mean both sides would have to adjust their claims – like Beijing has on Tawang.Breaches to the agreementThe 2005 agreement also said “the two sides will resolve the boundary question through peaceful and friendly consultations. Neither side shall use or threaten to use force against the other by any mean”.Since then there have been multiple military stand-offs — Depsang in 2013, Chumur in 2014, Doklam in 2017 and in Eastern Ladakh that started in April 2020. Since 2005 there has been a first fatal clash at Galwan in June 2020. The two sides fired bullets at each other in Eastern Ladakh in 2020 – a first in almost six decades.