Border talks with Assam to be held on Apr 25: Mizoram officials

Aizawl: Mizoram has finalised its decision to engage in official-level talks with Assam on April 25th, aligning with Assam's proposal to seek a lasting and amicable resolution to their long-standing interstate border dispute, officials said on Sunday.
State home department officials told TOI that the seven-member Mizoram delegation will be headed by state home secretary Vanlalmawia and is scheduled to depart for Guwahati by flight on April 24th. The final approval from the state govt was granted on Friday.
"We need to resolve all the remaining unsettled issues, and the specifics of the modalities should be agreed upon during the official negotiations to facilitate decision-making between the ministers of the two states," an official said.
The last, and fourth, round of minister-level negotiations on the border dispute took place on August 9th in Aizawl. The Mizoram delegation was led by home minister K Sapdanga, while the Assam delegation was headed by border protection and development minister Atul Bora.
The joint statement released after the meeting affirmed the conditions agreed upon in previous discussions will continue to be observed by both states. It also stated that officials from both sides will hold talks to resolve remaining differences and conduct detailed studies on unresolved modalities. There was an agreement to hold the next round of minister-level talks before March 31, which ultimately did not materialize. The joint statement also tasked the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police of the border districts on both sides to hold negotiations every six months and virtual meetings every month.
Despite sporadic incidents of border-related violence along the 123km boundary in the past, progress in resolving the long-standing issue had been slow until the tragic firing incident on July 26th, 2021, which resulted in the death of five Assam policemen.