While National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval’s discussions with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on the stand-off at Doklam may not have yielded immediate results, his visit to Beijing has certainly brought down the high level of anti-India rhetoric that the Chinese official media indulged in ever since the logjam began in mid-June.

In fact, Chinese news agency Xinhua praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and India’s "open foreign economic policy" in a lengthy commentary the day Doval reached Beijing, in an unexpected break from the shrill rhetoric unleashed by the official media.

Observers said India’s refusal to budge from its position over the stalemate may have prompted Beijing to ask the official media to tone down its criticism of the Indian leadership since the media campaign was not paying dividends.

Doval is expected to brief PM Modi, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on his discussions with the Chinese side on the stand-off.

Since Parliament is in session, the government is also likely to inform both Houses on the contacts with China to end the stalemate. Modi is scheduled to visit China in September for the BRICS Summit and also have bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. New Delhi would like the stand-off to end before the PM’s visit to China but is doubtful whether it was possible, given the strong positions taken by both sides.

Sources in the Indian establishment are, however, drawing satisfaction from the fact that Doval was able to discuss ‘major problems’ with Yang despite Beijing’s insistence for weeks that there would be no talks with India until Indian troops withdrew from their positions at the disputed site.

‘’We have all along been saying that we wish to resolve the stand-off through diplomatic means…the NSA’s talks with his Chinese counterpart was the first significant step in this direction,’’ official sources added.

Delhi is hopeful that diplomatic channels on both sides would be activated in the coming weeks in the run up to the Modi-Xi meeting on the margins of the BRICS Summit.