India, China to keep discussing LAC stalemate; hold two-day corps commander-level talks

Tribune News Service

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, August 15

In the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s two expected meetings in the next few weeks, India and China on Tuesday issued a statement saying the two sides would keep discussing resolution – at the Military commander level—of pending issues along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh.

Modi-Xi are expected to meet at the BRICS summit (August 22-24) in South Africa followed by G20 summit in India (September 9-10).

A joint statement was issued on Tuesday after the 19th round of India-China Corps Commander Level Meeting was held at Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the Indian side on August 13-14.

The Ministry of External Affairs posted the statement on its website that said: “The two sides had a positive, constructive and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the remaining issues along the LAC in the Western Sector (nomenclature for the LAC in Eastern Ladakh).”

They agreed to resolve the remaining issues in an expeditious manner and maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations through military and diplomatic channels, the statement said. This would be in line with the guidance provided by the leadership.

Describing the Military commander-level meeting the statement said “The two sides exchanged views in an open and forward looking manner”. In the interim, the two sides agreed to maintain the peace and tranquility on the ground in the border areas.

This was the 19thround of talks since June 2020.

The two sides look to end the ongoing impasse along the LAC in eastern Ladakh where the two militaries have been locked in a stand-off since April 2020.

Talks were conducted after almost four months. The last round conducted on April 23 ended in stalemate. Since then there have been a series of high-level contacts between the two sides.

Differences remain unresolved over pulling back of troops from the Depsang plains areas and Charding Nullah near Demchok.

Talks are deadlocked over the pending resolution of disputes at Depsang, a 972-sq km plateau where the two sides have issue over troops positions especially at ‘bottleneck’ on the eastern edge of Depsang.

India has been objecting to People Liberation Army (PLA) deliberately blocking Indian patrols on this specific patrolling route in Depsang. Prior to April 2020 Indian patrols used the patrolling route, however, the PLA has been craftily using a clause in a thirty-year old border agreement to block Indian patrols.

India has already suggested to China that a graded three-step process is needed to ease the standoff. The first is disengagement of troops within close proximity of each other in grey zones along the LAC and getting back to positions as on April 2020.

The next two steps — de-escalation and de-induction — would entail pulling back troops and equipment to the pre-April 2020 levels. Till that is agreed upon and complied, it cannot be assumed to be businessas usual and Indian troops intend to remain at the LAC.

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