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NEW DELHI: Indian and Chinese military officials held talks for the third day in a row on Wednesday in an attempt to defuse new tensions on the Himalayan border.
A decades-old territorial dispute flared up again over the weekend when troops from both countries came face to face along a disputed mountainous border in the Ladakh region.
So far, there has been no official statement on the progress of the discussions taking place in the town of Chushul on the Indian side of the Royal Line of Control (LAC), but media reports suggested they had been “inconclusive. “.
More than two months after a deadly confrontation between the two countries in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley on June 15, the first in 45 years, when 20 Indian soldiers were killed and more than 70 wounded, both sides once again stood at the edge of a new confrontation. along Pangong Tso Lake in the region.
New Delhi has criticized Beijing for its “provocative” behavior. In a statement on Tuesday, the Indian Foreign Ministry said: “The Chinese engaged in provocative military maneuvers late at night on August 29 and 30 in an attempt to change the status quo in the southern shore area. from Pangong Lake. “
He added that “the Indian side responded to these provocative actions and took appropriate defensive measures,” and that on August 31, “even when the ground commanders of the two sides were in talks to reduce the situation,” Chinese troops again engaged. in “provocative action”.
The ministry said: “Due to timely defensive action, the Indian side was able to prevent these attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo.”
However, China accused India of “violating the consensus” and trespassing on LAC.
In a statement, also on Tuesday, Ji Rong, spokesman for the New Delhi-based Chinese embassy, said: “On August 31, Indian troops violated the consensus reached in previous multi-level commitments and negotiations between China and India, illegally trespassed the line. of Royal Control again on the southern shore of Lake Pangong Tso and near Reqin Pass in the western sector of the China-India border, and carried out blatant provocations, again causing tension in the border areas. “
Tensions between the two countries began to brew again in early May when Indian troops blamed the Chinese army for hindering the usual patrols along LAC on the Ladakh and Sikkim border.
But Beijing accused its southern neighbor of building road infrastructure in the Fingers region around Pangong Tso Lake and the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh.
Amid the blame game, both sides began to reinforce the troops, leading to a military rally, before the deadly confrontation in the Galwan Valley.
Since then, China and India have held several rounds of talks at the political and military level in an attempt to cool the situation down.
Media reports suggest that China’s refusal to return to its previous position at Pangong Tso and Depsang Lake has stalled the separation process along the border.
“The actions and behavior of the Chinese side since the beginning of this year throughout LAC have been a clear violation of the bilateral agreements and protocols concluded between the two countries to guarantee peace and tranquility at the border,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India.
China, by contrast, blamed India for “territorial violation.”
India had “seriously violated the relevant agreements and protocols and the important consensus reached between the two countries, and had seriously damaged the peace and tranquility along the border areas between China and India,” Rong added.
However, political experts hoped that the war of words would not lead to further deterioration in relations, adding that building trust was equally important.
“If the war of words turns into war in action, then obviously the side that is weak in action will be at a disadvantage. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, ”Professor Siddiq Wahid, an international expert based in Srinagar, told Arab News.
“The antidote to mistrust is trust. But to trust, there must be a sincerity of intention, “he added.
Manoj Kewalramani, from the Bangalore-based think tank, the Takshashila Institution, said the current situation would only serve to “deepen mistrust, as the trust built over decades between the armies has collapsed.”
He added: “India’s withdrawal from the multilateral military exercises involving China and Pakistan in Russia later this month reflects this. Political confidence has been fragile and the current situation only increases the pressure on this. “
Wahid pointed out that the lack of transparency in both regimes was the reason for the current stalemate.
“India and China have become increasingly authoritarian and opaque governments about their decision-making processes. Second, it is difficult to form an independent opinion given the lack of accurate information from the front line. Third, it is well known that the Chinese media are synonymous with state media; This can also be said, increasingly, of the Indian media, ”he said.
He added that the “internal political compulsion” of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also getting in the way of solving the problem.
“To divert people’s attention from their utter economic and military failure, an empty saber rattling is always helpful. The BJP (the ruling Bharatiya Junata Party of India) faces elections in Bihar (Indian state) in October. Even the most superficial recollection of the tactics of this BJP government will show that their modus operandi before an election has been to shout about the threat to India’s security, ”Wahid said.
Kewalramani said that if the conflict dragged on it could have a “great geopolitical impact.”
He added: “The longer it takes or the more it escalates, the more China will alienate India. Geopolitically, India is likely to seek greater external balance if it discovers that Beijing is unwilling to maintain calm at the border. “
