NEW DELHI: India and China said on Tuesday they had agreed to strengthen communication, refrain from sending more troops to the border and avoid actions that would exacerbate tensions between the two countries.
The points of agreement, released in a joint statement after the sixth round of talks between senior military officials on Monday, struck all the right notes, but analysts warned that it would be actions on the ground that would show whether the situation was stabilizing. or not. no.
According to the statement issued by the Indian side, the two sides agreed to “avoid misunderstandings and wrong judgments, stop sending more troops to the front, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground and avoid taking actions that may complicate the situation. “
“The two sides also agreed to hold the seventh round of the Meeting at the Military Commanders Level as soon as possible, take practical measures to properly resolve problems on the ground, and jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border area.”
This is the first time that India and China have issued a joint statement after military-level talks to ease tensions between the two countries that had soared after India in May detected multiple intrusions by Chinese troops into Ladakh throughout its underlined royal control line.
The sixth round of senior military commander-level talks on Monday lasted nearly 15 hours and focused on ways to ease tensions along high-altitude friction points in eastern Ladakh. The current levels of tension are considered unprecedented in recent times. A violent clash between the two countries on June 15 left 20 dead on the Indian side and an unknown number of Chinese victims.
The commander-level talks came after a September 10 meeting between the foreign ministers of India and China in Moscow. That paved the way for a temporary truce that is still in place although the tens of thousands of soldiers line each other with tanks, missiles and air support. At some points, the troops are less than a kilometer apart.
In the talks, the Indian delegation conveyed its position that China had a responsibility to withdraw from the positions it held. The meeting’s agenda was to draw up a specific timeline for the implementation of the five-point agreement reached between India and China on September 10 when the Foreign Ministers of India and China, S Jaishankar and Wang Yi, met in Moscow. India also insisted on a time-bound implementation of the agreement that ended the talks between S Jaishankar of India and Wang Yi of China in Moscow.
“The points of the joint statement are general: the reference to peace and quiet, refraining from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground and avoiding taking measures that may complicate the situation,” said Srikanth Kondapalli, professor of Chinese studies at the University. Jawaharlal Nehru based in New Delhi.
“The proof of the pudding is in the implementation. We had previous agreements, but then we had the June 15 incident “which was a violent clash between India and China in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed.” So we must be careful. The question is the implementation at the local level and whether the end result for India, reestablishing the status quo ante, is met or not, “he added.
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