NEW DELHI Indian and Chinese military commanders sat down for another round of talks on Sunday with the aim of defusing tensions that erupted after Beijing sought to open a new front in the ongoing military showdown with India.
Sunday’s brigade commander-level talks were the seventh in a row that began last Monday and aimed to resolve new tensions along the southern shore of Pangong Tso Lake that erupted after the Indian military stepped forward. to the intrusions of Chinese troops on August 29-31.
It came two days after the defense ministers of India and China, Rajnath Singh and Wei Fenghe, met in Moscow on the sidelines of a regional conference of defense ministers. This was the first face-to-face meeting at the political level between the two countries since tensions flared in May after India detected intrusions by soldiers from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at various locations along the border of the Line of Royal Control (LAC) in Ladakh in May.
This included an intrusion along the north shore of Pangong Tso Lake along the Finger area, that is, a series of eight mountain folds that jut out into the lake. Many rounds of talks at the military and diplomatic level have failed to make a breakthrough in disengagement and de-escalation, stalled since mid-July after some initial steps.
Since the Singh-Wei meeting on Friday does not throw an obvious path forward, all eyes are on a meeting this week between India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, again in Moscow this week.
New Delhi officials were unwilling to risk guessing the outcome of Sunday’s talks. One official pointed to statements by India and China issued separately after discussions on Friday talking about keeping communication channels open. The official also said the Singh-Wei talks had been requested by the Chinese side, which analysts such as Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese studies at New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University saw as a possible sign that Beijing might be looking for. a compromise.
Given that China has challenges on the border with India, in addition to the South China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the Senkaku Islands with Japan, “there could be a window of opportunity for a compromise,” Kondapalli said. “But that process should be initiated by China,” he said.
Until now, militarily, New Delhi was prepared for the “long haul”, that is, ensuring that troops supported by the Indian Air Force remained on its border with China not only in Ladakh but in the east in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, according to two acquaintances. The deployment will continue until Beijing withdraws its troops, reduces tensions and moves its troops back to the positions they were in in April, said one of the two people cited above.
This would mean “stretching” the Indian army given its challenges on the Pakistani front as well as the border with China, said former Northern Army commander Deepender Singh Hooda. But the military “has sufficient capacity to deal with the current levels of tension” on both fronts, he said.
On the diplomatic front, New Delhi’s plans were to keep the doors open for compromise. On Thursday, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said that “the way forward is negotiations, through diplomatic and military channels.”
India “is firmly committed to resolving all outstanding issues through peaceful dialogue. We strongly urge the Chinese side to sincerely engage with the Indian side with the aim of rapidly restoring peace and tranquility in the border areas” through of the total disconnection and de-escalation, he added.
Again on Thursday, at a virtual event to publish his book The Way of India: Strategies for an Uncertain World, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said “What happens at the border will affect the relationship”, in response to a question about India- China. relations. The solution to the situation had to be found through diplomacy, “he said, adding later that” we have to work to overcome this. “
SL Narasimhan, a member of the Advisory Council of the Indian National Security Council, believed that India had already communicated to China that “unless the status quo ante is achieved” and there is peace throughout LAC, “there will be repercussions. for bilateral relations “. a possible indication towards a ban on a number of Chinese mobile phone apps and restrictions against Chinese investment in areas such as Indian infrastructure.
“We need to wait and see what happens at the brigade commander level talks (on Sunday), as well as the foreign ministers meeting (possible) on September 10,” he added.
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