India and China on Saturday held another round of military talks with a focus on taking forward the disengagement process in Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang in eastern Ladakh and bring down the tensions in the region, official sources said.
The Indian Army has been matching up to the Chinese build up in both Pangong Tso lake and Galwan Valley, the two locations in Ladakh which have witnessed major reinforcement of troops in the last two weeks, sources said. There was very little chance of easing of tension anytime soon as both sides are aggressively holding onto their respective positions, they said.
The defence minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had an informal summit meeting at Wuhan where it was decided that peace and tranquillity will be maintained at the border.
The day-long exercise held "is part of the ongoing initiatives being taken by India and China to ensure greater interaction between troops stationed along the Line of Actual Control.
China on Wednesday said the latest round of the border talks with India was held in a "candid and pragmatic atmosphere" and the two sides had a "positive, constructive and in-depth discussion" on the resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control in the Western Sector.
India's engagement with China is "complex" and Chinese attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh starting from April-May 2020 seriously disturbed the peace and tranquillity in border areas, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in a report on Monday.
India has not yet received any confirmation on Chinese President Xi Jinping's in-person participation at the upcoming G20 summit, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday amid reports that he is likely skip the conclave.
The talks would be held in Moldo opposite the Chushul sector in India.
Two Arunachal Pradesh youths from the state's Anjaw district have not returned home from August this year when they had set out in search of medicinal plants near the state's border with China.
"India exercises with whomever it chooses to and it does not give a veto to third countries on these issues," the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said.
The meeting primarily focused on implementation of certain decisions taken at the fifth round of talks between Corps Commanders of the two armies last week on the disengagement process as well as to bring down prevailing tension in the region, sources said.
The decisions were mentioned in a joint statement issued by the two armies late Tuesday, a day after the sixth round of Sino-India Corps commander-level talks that lasted for 14-hours.
Kicking off his four-day visit, General Suhag met General Li Zuocheng, the head of China's ground forces which have undergone major restructuring in the last three years.
The report said that Indian officials believe China is trying to contain India by forcing it to divert more resources into defending simultaneously both its western border with Pakistan and eastern flank with China and by weakening its willingness and ability to challenge Chinese ambitions to dominate the region.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla terms India's relationship with China as "complex".
"After the Major General-level talks on Wednesday, the talks are expected to be held over the next few days in Chushul at multiple levels to find solutions to the dispute in specific areas," sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg are being finalised, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on Monday but did not give a direct reply on the possibility of a meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The two militaries are set to hold extensive talks on finalising modalities for restoring normalcy and bringing back peace and tranquillity in the region after the verification of the disengagement exercise is completed.
'The choice of Dhoka La for the intrusion by Chinese troops is significant and suggests a twin objective of pressuring Thimpu to allow Beijing to establish an embassy there and reinforcing Chinese claims on Arunachal Pradesh,' warns former RA&W officer Jayadev Ranade.
Corps Commander-level meeting between armies of India and China was held in Chushul on Tuesday, to resolve the ongoing dispute over Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh area, said Indian Army Sources.
'The border standoff, if not properly addressed by both sides, could escalate to a conventional or sub-conventional conflict between India and China,' predicts Srikanth Kondapalli, one of India's leading China experts.
The two sides have also agreed for a joint mechanism to verify the progress in the disengagement process through delegation meetings as well as using unmanned aerial vehicles.
The sources said the ongoing engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic levels have resulted in complete disengagement of troops at patrolling point 14, 15 and 17 A in eastern Ladakh.
Clinton, who lost to President Donald Trump in the 2016 elections, claimed that both Russia and China are benefitting from his weak foreign policy.
The meeting started at around 11.30 am at Moldo on the Chinese side of Line of Actual Control (LAC) opposite Chushul to defuse the tensions in Eastern Ladakh sector due to Chinese military build-up, the sources said. This is the second meeting between the two corps commanders.
The incident had taken place at a time when the Indian Foreign Minister, S Jaishankar, was in Moscow for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, where he met his Chinese counterpart to address the border issues.
Bhutan firmly abides by the one-China principle meaning Taiwan and Tibet are part of China and stands ready to work with China for an early settlement of the boundary issue and advance the political process of establishing diplomatic relations, it said.
India on Monday pressed for early disengagement of troops in remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh during a fresh round of high-level military talks with China, people familiar with the matter said.
In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan gave a brief account of the four-month-long standoff and said the Chinese side attempted to transgress the Line of Actual in several areas of the western sector since mid-May.
The two sides held talks on Tuesday as well but it could not produce any tangible outcome, the sources said.
The Indian Army has released photos and videos of its soldiers playing cricket at a very high-altitude forward location in eastern Ladakh amid the lingering border row with China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region.
The move comes amid hectic diplomatic manoeuvring between the two countries over a host of issues like Nuclear Suppliers Group and designation of Masood Azhar as a terrorist by the United Nations.
EAM Jaishankar's mission is aimed at strengthening India's strategic autonomy in a complex international environment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The two sides are also expected to finalise a roadmap for restoration of peace and tranquility in the high-altitude region that witnessed an eight-week bitter standoff between the troops of the two countries.
'When democracy first came to Bhutan people had no idea and they were like 'What is that?' Oh it's that thing they have in India where the leaders are always fighting and arguing.' When I screened the film to Bhutan's film committee, they thought my film was good but they were concerned about that line. They wanted me to change that line. They said, 'We don't want to offend India.' I tried to tell them that Indians have a great ability to laugh at themselves but they insisted I change it.'
'It's a very tough situation. We're talking to India. We're talking to China. They've got a big problem there'
The last round of Corps Commander-level talks had taken place on October 12 but there was no breakthrough on the disengagement of troops from the friction points.
"India and China to hold Corps Commander-level talks on October 12 in the Eastern Ladakh sector to address the ongoing military standoff between the two countries. So far, the two sides have held six rounds of Corps Commander-level talks," the source said.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday that India and China are going through a 'particularly bad patch' in their ties because Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which it still doesn't have a 'credible explanation' and it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
