India, Aug. 25 -- Coming just weeks before Xi's visit to New Delhi for the BRICS Summit, the talks aim to stabilise the relationship and lay the groundwork for a significant summit

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's arrival in Beijing for the 25th round of Special Representatives (SR) talks with Foreign Minister Wang Yi looks, on the calendar, like routine business under a mechanism running since 2003. It is not. This is the first SR round in a full year, and it comes weeks before Xi Jinping is expected in New Delhi for the BRICS Summit on September 12-13 - a visit that would be his first to India in years.

The border talks are, in effect, ground-clearing for a summit both capitals want to succeed. The recent record shows real, if n...