India, China agree to hold next round of military talks soon

MEA said it was agreed that both sides should in the interim also continue to ensure a stable ground situation

India and China on Thursday agreed to restart stalled negotiations to resolve the stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, even as new satellite images continued to suggest that the neighbouring communist country had built settlements close to the disputed boundary to bolster its territorial claims.

Even as the two sides agreed to “avoid any untoward incident” along the LAC till the 19-month-long stand-off could be completely resolved, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh sent out a message to China, stating that while India had never coveted the land of any other country, its brave soldiers were capable of safeguarding every inch of its territory from external aggression. He inaugurated a renovated war-memorial at Rezang La near the LAC, paying homage to the 114 Indian Army soldiers, who had sacrificed their lives exactly on this day 59 years ago while valiantly repulsing an attack by the Chinese People's Liberation Army during the conflict in 1962.

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The senior Indian and Chinese diplomats had a video-conference and agreed that the military commanders of the two sides would soon hold the 14th round of negotiations to achieve “the objective of complete disengagement from all the friction points along the LAC in the western sector in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols”.

The diplomats of the two nations had “a candid and in-depth discussion” as they held the video-conference within the framework of the “Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs” – more than a month after the 13th round of talks between the military commanders had ended in a stalemate.

India’s delegation for the video-conference was led by Naveen Srivastava, the Additional Secretary at the East Asia Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Hong Liang, the Director General of the Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government, led the delegation of the communist country.

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They agreed on the need to find an early resolution to the remaining issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols so as to restore peace and tranquillity, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. They also agreed that both sides should in the interim continue to ensure “a stable ground situation and avoid any untoward incident”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government stated in Beijing that both sides agreed to “actively prepare” for the 14th round of meeting between the senior commanders and make efforts to settle the remaining issues.

The Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) had mutually withdrawn frontline troops from the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso (lake) in February and from the Gogra Post in August this year. They, however, could not agree on disengagement in other remaining face-off points along the LAC.

New Delhi and Beijing on Thursday sought to restart the negotiations to resolve the 19-month-long stand-off even as media reports citing satellite images suggested that China had built another village close to its disputed boundary with India in the Arunachal Pradesh of India. A week ago, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, and the spokesperson of the MEA, Arindam Bagchi, had contradicted each other on the location of another village China had built close to its disputed boundary with India in the eastern sector.

A source in New Delhi said that China had been building villages in the disputed areas in order to strengthen its territorial claims in boundary negotiations with India.

The Article VII of the 2005 India-China agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for Settlement of the Boundary Question says that the two sides shall safeguard interests of settled populations in the border areas while clinching a deal to resolve the boundary row.

The recent reports suggested that China had also built villages on the territory of Bhutan.

The Chinese PLA's recent incursion into Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and its continued build-up prompted the Indian Army to step up preparedness all along the disputed boundary between the two nations.

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