No breakthrough in India-China military talks, all eyes now on defence ministers’ meet | India News

NEW DELHI: There was no concrete breakthrough yet again in defusing the three-year-long troop confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh despite the top-level military talks being held after a gap of over four months, though the two sides agreed to continue dialogue and maintain “security and stability” along the frontier.
All eyes are now on the bilateral meeting between defence minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart General Li Shangfu on April 27, a day before the main Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s conclave here, to see if the trust deficit can be somewhat bridged and heightened tensions along the entire 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh reduced.
Sources said the two sides exchanged “proposals and counter-proposals” during the marathon 18^th round of corps commander-level talks on the Chinese side of the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on Sunday.
India pushed for troop disengagement at the strategically-located Depsang Bulge area and the Charding Ninglung Nallah (CNN) track junction at Demchok as the first step towards eventual de-escalation and de-induction of the over 50,000 troops each forward deployed with heavy weapon systems in eastern Ladakh.

“But no mutually-acceptable solution could be reached. The overall bilateral relations will not improve till China restores the status quo it disrupted on the LAC in April-May 2020,” a top source said, dismissing China’s contention that the border row was now “shifting from a standoff to normalized management”.
The persisting stalemate was reflected in the fact there was no joint statement, as has usually been the norm during previous rounds. The external affairs ministry, in a brief anodyne statement on Monday, said the two sides had “a frank and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the relevant issues along the LAC in the western sector so as to restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas, which will enable progress in bilateral relations”.

“In the interim, the two sides agreed to maintain the security and stability on the ground in the western sector. They agreed to stay in close contact and maintain dialogue through military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest,” the MEA said.
The statement also said the “exchange of views” was conducted “in an open and candid manner” in line with the “guidance” provided by the state leaders and the meeting between the two foreign ministers, S Jaishankar and Qin Gang, in early-March this year.
Jaishankar, incidentally, had described the state of the bilateral relationship as “abnormal” then. A few days later, he had gone on to say that the situation on the LAC remained “very fragile” as there were points where Indian and Chinese troop deployments are “quite dangerous” in terms of military assessment.
The assessment is that while the military commanders can continue to talk in order to maintain peace on the ground, especially after the violent skirmishes in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 saw casualties on both sides for the first time in 45 years, the overall de-escalation will require top-level political intervention.