After the eighth round of corps commander-level talks between India and China on Friday, the ministry of external affairs said the two countries will continue to maintain dialogue to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to the situation along the Line of Control (LAC) in the eastern Ladakh sector.
MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that both India and China continue to maintain close communication at the military and diplomatic levels to achieve complete disengagement along the contested sector. The two sides were guided by the leaders’ consensus to jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in border areas, Srivastava told reporters. During the previous round of talks on October 12, the Indian side had demanded comprehensive disengagement at all flashpoints and restoration of status quo ante of early April.
While the two sides were unable to reach a conclusion even after a nine-hour long eighth round of military talks, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat earlier in the day said that India will not accept shifting of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), in the midst of border tensions with China in the Ladakh sector.
Gen Rawat said the situation in the Ladakh theatre was tense and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was facing unanticipated consequences of its misadventure in the sector because of the Indian military’s “firm and strong” response. Also, defence minister Rajnath Singh had on Thursday said that India was determined to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of unilateralism and aggression, no matter what the sacrifice.
{{/usCountry}}Gen Rawat said the situation in the Ladakh theatre was tense and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was facing unanticipated consequences of its misadventure in the sector because of the Indian military’s “firm and strong” response. Also, defence minister Rajnath Singh had on Thursday said that India was determined to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of unilateralism and aggression, no matter what the sacrifice.
{{/usCountry}}The border row is in its sixth month and efforts to disengage and de-escalate have yielded no results so far. Apart from Ladakh, a tense confrontation between Indian and Chinese soldiers also took place in north Sikkim in early May. The standoff has taken India-China ties to a new low, with troops even firing warning shots at friction points in August-September, the first such instance since October 1975.