NEW DELHI/BEIJING:Indian and Chinese officials held diplomatic talks in Beijing on the standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Wednesday, with the Indian side insisting that disengagement of front-line troops alone will help restore normalcy in bilateral ties.
The statements released by the external affairs ministry and China’s foreign ministry did not point to any immediate breakthrough in discussions on proposals for disengagement. The talks were held under the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs, and this was the first in-person meeting of the body since July 2019.
WMCC was activated soon after the face-off on LAC began in May 2020 but all its meetings since then were held virtually because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The in-person meeting amid the chill in bilateral ties bestowed a sense of significance to the talks.
India and China have arrayed more than 50,000 troops each in the Ladakh sector and tensions spiked again last December after several soldiers from both sides were injured in a clash along the LAC at Yangtse, near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.
Besides reviewing the situation along LAC in the western sector, the WMCC meeting “discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining areas in an open and constructive manner”, according to the statement from the external affairs ministry.
{{/usCountry}}Besides reviewing the situation along LAC in the western sector, the WMCC meeting “discussed proposals for disengagement in the remaining areas in an open and constructive manner”, according to the statement from the external affairs ministry.
{{/usCountry}}Such a disengagement “would help in restoration of peace and tranquillity along the LAC in Western Sector and create conditions for restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations”, it added.
“To achieve this objective in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols, they agreed to hold the next (18th) round of the Senior Commanders meeting at an early date. The two sides agreed to continue discussions through military and diplomatic channels,” the statement said.
The Chinese statement said the two sides reviewed “positive” progress in border management, affirmed the results of disengagement of border troops of the two countries at Galwan Valley and four other locations, and “exchanged views frankly” during the meeting.
It further said the two sides agreed to “actively implement the important consensus between the leaders of the two countries to promote further stabilisation of the border situation”.
The two sides agreed to consolidate the results of negotiations, strictly abide by the spirit of agreements between the two sides, avoid repeating situations, and ensure peace and tranquillity in border areas, the Chinese statement said.
“The two sides agreed to move forward on the basis of the consensus previously reached, accelerate the resolution of issues related to the western section of the Sino-Indian border, and reach a mutually acceptable solution at an early date; the two sides explored other measures to further ease the border situation and agreed to work to promote the border situation into a normalised control phase,” the Chinese statement added.
The Indian side at the WMCC meet was led by joint secretary (East Asia) Shilpak Ambule from the external affairs ministry, while the Chinese delegation was led by Hong Liang, director general of the boundary and oceanic affairs department of the foreign ministry.
Ambule also met assistant foreign minister Hua Chunying on Wednesday, and a brief Chinese foreign ministry statement said they discussed bilateral ties and the situation at the border.
India and China withdrew front-line troops from the two banks of the Pangong Lake, Gogra and Hot Springs after more than two dozen rounds of diplomatic and military talks during the past three years. However, they have been unable to reach an understanding on friction points such as Depsang and Demchok.
Twenty Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were killed in brutal clashes at Galwan Valley in June 2020, the first fatalities along the LAC in 45 years. External affairs minister S Jaishankar has accused China of violating agreements on border management by amassing troops along LAC and made it clear that the normalisation of bilateral relations is dependent on the restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
The Chinese side, on the other hand, has called for the border standoff to be put in its “appropriate place” while the two countries take forward relations in other areas such as trade and investment. India-China ties are currently at their lowest point in more than six decades.
The 17th round of talks between senior military commanders of India and China since the standoff began were held at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on December 20 last year. WMCC last met on October 14, 2022. There were no breakthroughs at both these meetings, and the two sides only committed themselves to further talks to find an end to the standoff.
Hu Shisheng, of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, described the meeting as a positive sign.
“It is quite abnormal for two big neighbours not to have this kind of interaction in the past more than three years. So, of course, this means a lot. It’s not only due to the fact that this year India will host several diplomatic events but also due to the fact that bilateral relations cannot afford to be aloof from each other for such a long time,” Hu said.
“No interactions mean there will be no possibility to accumulate common grounds and mutual understandings, which are the basic foundations to build mutual trust. I sincerely hope such a meeting is just the beginning of a new round of emerging interactions between these two nations.”