Updated: October 5, 2020 6:57:19 am
For India, it will be the last time that Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, the XIV Corps commander who led the first six rounds of discussions, will be part of the engagement. (File photo)
EVEN AS the armies of both sides prepare to dig through the winter, with no signs of any major progress in the border talks, the seventh meeting of senior Indian-Chinese military commanders will take place on October 12 in a new attempt to find a resolution to five-month standoff in eastern Ladakh.
For India, it will be the last time that Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, the XIV Corps commander who led the first six rounds of discussions, will be part of the engagement. His one-year term comes to an end on October 14, after which he will take over the Indian Military Academy (IMA).
Lieutenant General PGK Menon, who will replace Singh, was part of the last corps commanders meeting on September 21 and will also be present for the last round. The previous meeting on September 21 was also the first since May in which a diplomat from the Indian side was present: Naveen Srivastava, Deputy Secretary (East Asia) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Srivastava has been representing India in the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Issues (WMCC), which has met five times since May. In its previous meeting on September 30, the WMCC had decided that the next senior commanders meeting “should be held at an early date so that both parties can work towards the early and complete withdrawal of troops along the LAC (Line of Royal Control) … “
Until now, the Chinese delegation has been led by Major General Liu Lin, commander of the Xinjiang Southern Military Region. In a joint statement after the last meeting, the two sides agreed not to aggravate the situation on the ground and “seriously implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries.”
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China and India have toughened their positions since September 21. China had said last week that it does not recognize the new Ladakh Union Territory, and that it is opposed to India building infrastructure there “for military control purposes.” China had also stated that “the border between China and India LAC is very clear, that is LAC on November 7, 1959.”
Reacting harshly, the Foreign Ministry had stated that India “has never accepted the so-called 1959 Royal Line of Control defined unilaterally”, and that it is “unsustainable”.
Even after five rounds of WMCC talks, six rounds of discussions between Corps Commanders, and meetings between Defense and Foreign Ministers on both sides, no further disconnect and eventual de-escalation are in sight.
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India and China have around 50,000 troops each in the region, along with additional artillery, tanks, and air defense assets.
India wants troops from both sides to return to their positions by the end of April. And while India has been demanding a resolution for the situation in eastern Ladakh, China has insisted on resolving the situation in the Chushul subsector first. At various points on Finger 4 ridge on the north bank of Pangong Tso, and at certain elevations in the Chushul subsector, Indian and Chinese troops are only a few hundred meters apart.
The temperature in some of these areas has already started to drop to -10 degrees Celsius, and as winter will start soon, both sides will have to review some of the positions where troops are stationed at altitudes of more than 16,000 feet.
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