Ahead of SCO Defence Ministers meet, India-China held talks on disengagement from friction points at the LAC.
India, China held 18th round of corps commander talks to resolve military standoff and to take up unresolved issues for discussion. The focus of the talks, which began on Sunday morning at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point on the Chinese side in eastern Ladakh, remains on disengagement from Demchok and Depsang Plains, according to media reports.
The Chinese Defence Minister is scheduled to be in India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meetings next week in the national capital.
These talks are important as the outcome would determine the fate of forthcoming engagement of Indian and China defence ministers during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting to take place in New Delhi on April 27-28,. Russian defence minister too would be visiting for the same.
Just ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers meeting in the national capital, India and China held the 18th round of Corps Commander talks at Moldo on the Chinese side in eastern Ladakh in the continuing efforts to resolve the stand-off ongoing since May 2020.
The 18th round of military talks between the two neighbouring nations have taken place to ease tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) where the two sides have been locked in a border row for almost three years.
This meeting is taking place after a gap of five months. The last meeting between the two sides at the Corps Commander level was held in December last year. It comes at a time when both sides are engaged in rapid construction activities along the border areas to strengthen their respective positions.
The Indian side has been raising the issue of the Depsang plains, Demchok and disengagement by both sides repeatedly.
The Chinese side have been attempting to change the status quo ante at the LAC and the PLA moves are thwarted by the Indian forces resolutely. Both the armies are heavily deployed in the region and at the Chinese side frantic construction activities are going on.
Indian troops thwarted one such Chinese attempt in December last year in Yangtse when a Chinese contingent was forcefully pushed back to its area after they tried to come to Indian positions on the LAC there.
The India-China border row is continuing for three years and it is set to enter its fourth year in May. Despite four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), the two sides are nowhere close to an agreement for disengagement. There are around 60,000 troops from each side and advanced weapon systems deployed in the Ladakh sector.
Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu are expected to hold bilateral meetings with their Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on April 27, while the main SCO defence ministers’ meeting will be held a day later. India is set to host the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in May. These meetings will culminate in the SCO Summit to be held in July, the first time India will host the event since joining the grouping in 2017. SCO includes eight member state- India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
See Also: https://indiadiplomacy.in/india-rejects-outrightly-chinas-renaming-tactic-in-arunachal/
