JOIN USEastern Ladakh row: 16th round of military talks conducted between India and China
Indian and Chinese military commanders met on Sunday to end the stalemate in negotiations to resolve the more-than-two-year-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
The 16th round of negotiations between the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) took place even as both New Delhi and Beijing sent out subtle but tough messages to each other over the past couple of weeks.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government approved and facilitated the 14th Dalai Lama’s travel from the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh to Ladakh for a month-long sojourn. India’s investigating agencies launched a probe against two smartphone manufacturing companies of China, for alleged money laundering and customs duty evasion. Chinese President Xi Jinping lauded the officers and soldiers of the PLA units involved in the India-China military stand-off during his recent visit to Xinjiang. The PLA also continued with its build-ups along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary between India and China.
The 16th round of negotiations took place at the Indian Army’s post at Chushul on India’s side of the LAC, the country’s de facto boundary with China. Lt. Gen. Anindya Sengupta, the commander of the Indian Army’s XIV Corps, led the delegation of India. Major General Yang Lin, the commander of the South Xinjiang Military District of the Chinese PLA, led the delegation of China. The talks started at 9:30 am and continued till late in the evening.
A source told DH that the Indian Army was keen to end the stalemate over negotiation, particularly to reach the much-awaited deal for disengagement of troops from Hot Springs area (Patrol Point 15) on the LAC.
Though an agreement for withdrawal of troops from Hot Springs was perceived as the “lowest hanging fruit” in the negotiation after disengagement at Gogra Post in August 2021, the two sides could not agree on it in the past 11 months. The withdrawal of troops from Hot Springs would be followed by similar deals for Depsang and Demchok. The Chinese PLA blocked the Indian Army’s access to Patrol Points 10, 11, 12, 12A and 13 by deploying troops in Depsang Bulge, well inside the territory of India along the country’s LAC with China.
Neither New Delhi, nor Beijing released any statement on the outcome of the talks till late in the evening on Sunday.
The stand-off started in April-May 2020 with China amassing a large number of troops along its LAC with India, flouting the key 1993 and 1996 bilateral agreements for maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas pending the resolution of the boundary dispute through dialogue. The India Army’s counter-deployment to resist aggressive moves by the People’s Liberation Army’s soldiers led to the stand-off. It reached a flashpoint on June 15, 2020, when the Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in a violent face-off with the Chinese PLA in Galwan Valley. The PLA much later admitted that it had also lost four of its soldiers in the clash.
The negotiations between the two sides had resulted in mutual withdrawal of troops by both sides from some of the face-off points along the LAC – from the Galwan Valley in June 2020, from both banks of Pangong Tso in February 2021 and from Gogra Post in August 2021.