Govt highlights outcome of Sino-India military talks, says stability along LAC necessary while negotiating troop withdrawal

Senior diplomats of two nations will soon hold video conference, in addition to seventh meeting between military commanders

Even as the recent meeting between senior military commanders of the two nations failed to restart the stalled process of withdrawal of troops from the face-off points, New Delhi on Thursday said that it was necessary to ensure stability along India-China's Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The Modi government also highlighted that the recent meeting between the military commanders of India and China was the first which ended with a joint statement.

Read: Necessary to ensure stability on ground: MEA on Sino-India border standoff in eastern Ladakh

India on Thursday also tacitly asked China to refrain from making any further unilateral move to alter the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two nations.

The joint statement issued after the recent meeting between the senior military commanders had no reference to the restoration of status quo ante that existed before the stand-off started in late April and early May.

The diplomats of the two nations are likely to hold another video conference soon to discuss the ways to resolve the four-and-a-half-long military stand-off in eastern Ladakh, in addition to the next round of talks between the senior military commanders.

Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 14 Corps of the Indian Army, and Maj Gen Liu Lin of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had a more-than-14-hour-long meeting on the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations in the western sector – last Monday.

Also Read: India, China agree to stop sending more troops to LAC, but no deal yet on withdrawal of soldiers already deployed

They agreed to stop sending more soldiers to the face-off points along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh, but could not end the stalemate over withdrawal of large numbers of troops the two sides already deployed since the stand-off started.

“Even as two sides work towards complete disengagement in all friction areas, it is at the same time also necessary to ensure stability on the ground,” Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi.

"The latest senior commanders’ meeting should be seen in all this overall context," he said.

He also noted that the senior military commanders had met after nearly 50 days, following talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with their Chinese counterparts, Wei Fenghe and Wang Yi, in Moscow on September 4 and 10 respectively.

Srivastava said the joint statement issued after the meeting between the senior military commanders reflected the stated commitment of both sides to disengage along the LAC.

Also Read: 'China was building military infrastructure along LAC amid attempts to repair bilateral ties post-Doklam'

"As we have pointed out earlier, disengagement is a complex process that requires redeployment of troops by each side towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the LAC. This would require mutually agreed reciprocal actions," he said.

Lt. Gen. Singh and Maj. Gen. Liu earlier had five rounds of talks since the stand-off started, with the fifth on August 2. They did not hold any meeting for almost seven weeks till September 21, as the talks were stalled as the Chinese PLA declined to adhere to the process it earlier mutually agreed with the Indian Army for pulling back soldiers from the face-off scenes along the LAC.

The MEA spokesperson on Thursday said that recent meeting had allowed the senior military commanders of the two sides "to have candid and in-depth exchanges of views on stabilizing the situation along the LAC".

Also Read: Sixth round of India-China military talks lasts 14 hours; focus on defusing tensions at friction points in Ladakh

“The way ahead will be to refrain from making any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo, while the two sides continue their discussions to achieve complete disengagement in all friction areas and to ensure full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” he told journalists during a routine briefing.

Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, also participated in the meeting on Monday. So did his counterparts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government.

The senior diplomats of the two sides would soon hold a video conference within the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), which was instituted in 2013. New Delhi and Beijing already held four virtual meetings of the WMCC after the military stand-off started in eastern Ladakh.