The 5th round of the India-China Strategic Dialogue will be held in New Delhi on August 20. The dialogue will be co-chaired by Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin.
The dialogue – taking place after a gap of three years – is expected to involve discussions on key bilateral issues that include the border incursions by Chinese troops, the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, Chinese market access to Indian IT and pharmaceutical companies, water-sharing agreements, among others. This dialogue is also preparatory to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Beijing in October this year.
Both countries have established a number of dialogue mechanisms to discuss bilateral issues. New Delhi and Beijing recently held a dialogue on Central Asia that involved discussions on regional and energy security.
The two sides have also seen a number of high level exchanges including the visit of Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Indian National Security Advisor Shivshnkar Menon to Beijing in July and the visit of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in May this year.