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India, China hold military talks after nearly 4 months
The 19th round of talks took place in the run-up to PM Modi attending the 'Brics' Summit in South Africa on August 22-24.
The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday held the 19th round of military talks in eastern Ladakh to ease tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC), where the two sides have been locked in a standoff for more than three years, people familiar with the matter said.
The talks, held at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point, began at 9.30am and concluded at 5.30pm, the people cited above said. The outcome of the military dialogue was not known when this report was filed on Monday night. A statement is expected in a day or two, as had happened after previous rounds of talks.
The latest round of corps commander-level talks took place almost four months after the 18th round of military dialogue was held on April 23. Those talks did not yield any significant breakthrough, with the sides agreeing to stay in close contact, maintain a dialogue through military and diplomatic channels, and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest.
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Despite four rounds of disengagement from the Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), the Indian and Chinese armies still have tens of thousands of troops and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.
The last round of disengagement from PP-15 took place in September 2022, with the breakthrough coming after the 16th round of military talks in July 2022 to cool tensions in the sensitive sector. Problems at Depsang in Daulet Beg Oldi sector and Charding Nullah Junction (CNJ) in Demchok sector are still on the negotiating table.
The 19th round of talks took place in the run-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (Brics) Summit in South Africa’s Johannesburg on August 22-24. The possibility of a meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit has not been ruled out, people aware of the matter said. Also, the Chinese leader is expected to be in New Delhi for the G20 summit in September, though no confirmation has been forthcoming yet.
In July, India said Modi and Xi discussed the need to stabilise bilateral ties at a brief encounter on the margins of last year’s G20 Summit in Indonesia, a shift from an earlier characterisation of the interaction as merely an exchange of courtesies.
India and China have been locked in a military standoff in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020. Bilateral ties plummeted to a six-decade low after brutal clashes in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 killed 20 Indian soldiers. According to India’s assessment, PLA’s casualties were twice as many as the Indian Army’s though Beijing officially claimed that only four Chinese soldiers were killed.
New Delhi has consistently said India-China relations cannot be normalised without restoring peace and tranquillity on the border.
