Our Take
The ice and chill marking the Indo-Chinese ties, ever since the violent showdown in eastern Ladakh between the armies of the two sides through the last summer, stand largely broken. This has been so due to a series of high level military talks, besides the diplomatic efforts from both the sides. Since this has been a continuing process, India and China are slated to sit together for another round of talks between their top military commanders’ tomorrow, or April 9 morning, to resolve the border tensions in the remaining areas of eastern Ladakh. This time it is going to be the eleventh round of talks between the two Armies. And it is reported to be billed to take place in the Chushul Sector on the Indian side of the LAC, or Line of Actual Control. Among the issues to be sorted out are mainly points of friction like Gogra, Hot Springs and Demchok in Ladakh. The previous, or the tenth round of corps commander-level talks between the two countries were held in Moldo on the Chinese side. This had led to the first disengagement process from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso in February and the troops of the two sides retraced their steps to deeper inside their respective territories with the intention to avoid confrontation and ensure peace and tranquility as had broadly been agreed in an earlier meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries. Once the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said thus about the ongoing dialogue process between India and China: “To reach a mutually acceptable solution for complete disengagement from all friction points at the earliest, India and China have agreed to continue their dialogue. This would enable the two sides to look at broader de-escalation of troops in the area and work towards the restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas. They also agreed that in the interim the two sides should continue to maintain stability at ground level and prevent any untoward incident.”
It was on February 11 this year that Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament that a major breakthrough was achieved between India and China in eastern Ladakh with both the sides initiating disengagement of troops from the southern and northern sides of Lake Pangong under a mutually agreed process. He made a statement about the ground situation in eastern Ladakh on the floor of the House to assert that India has strongly put across a message to China that it would not allow anyone to take even an inch of its land and that the Indian defence forces have been firmly protecting the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country along the LAC. “Our strategy and stand for dialogue is based on the guidelines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that we will not let anyone else take even an inch of our land. It’s the result of our determination that we have reached a position of agreement.” These remarks ever since they were made have served as a matter of policy with regard to Beijing; and yet the talks being held between the two sides have steadily been progressing to what looks like to be for good. More so since, both the neighbours happen to be formidable powers in their own right.
