The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are likely to hold on August 14 the 19th round of military talks to ease tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) where the two sides have been locked in a border row for more than three years, people familiar with the development said on Friday.
The latest round of Corps Commander level talks will take place almost four months after the last military dialogue was held on April 23.
Despite four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), the Indian and Chinese armies still have more than 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.
The Indian and Chinese armies have held multiple rounds of talks on the border issue, but problems at Depsang in Daulet Beg Oldi sector and Charding Nullah Junction (CNJ) in Demchok sector are still on the negotiating table.
The 19th round of military talks will take place in the run-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending the BRICS Summit in South Africa’s Johannesburg on August 22-24. The possibility of a meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit has not been ruled out, people aware of the matter said. Also, the Chinese leader is expected to be in New Delhi for the G20 summit in September.
In July, India said Modi and Xi discussed the need to stabilise bilateral ties at a brief encounter on the margins of last year’s G20 Summit in Indonesia, a shift from an earlier characterisation of the interaction as merely an exchange of courtesies.
India and China have been locked in a military standoff in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020. Bilateral ties plummeted to a six-decade low after a brutal skirmish in Galwan Valley killed 20 Indian soldiers. According to India’s assessment, PLA’s casualties were twice as many as the Indian Army’s though Beijing officially claimed that only four Chinese soldiers were killed.
India has consistently said India-China relations cannot be normalised without restoring peace and tranquillity on the border.
The government’s focus on border infrastructure and connectivity over the past nine years has significantly improved India’s ability to respond to China’s actions along the LAC, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on August 7.
In a statement issued after the 18th round of talks in April, the ministry of external affairs said the two sides 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.