New Delhi: Ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting slated for this week, top military commanders of India and China Sunday held their 18th round of Corps Commander level talks.
The talks are being held at the Indian side of the Chushul-Moldo meeting point after a gap of nearly five months since the last round of talks was held in December 2022.
The Indian side is being led by Lt Gen Rashim Bali, Commander of the 14 Corps — also known as the Fire and Fury Corps.
The meeting comes just ahead of Chinese Defence Minister Gen Li Shangfu’s visit for the SCO Defence Minister’s meeting scheduled for 27-28 April.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will also have a bilateral meeting with Gen Li during which the vexed issue of the LAC tensions will come up for discussion.
This visit also comes up in the run up to the SCO summit to be hosted by India.
Sources said that during the ongoing Corps Commander level meeting, India will be insisting on de-escalation and tempering down tensions in the strategically-important Depsang Plains.
The de-escalation issue
The Corps Commander level talks were instituted in 2020 after tensions arose in Eastern Ladakh following China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) violating the agreements and transgressing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in several places in Eastern Ladakh.
While both militaries have disengaged from the northern and southern banks of the Pangong Tso, Gogra and the Hot Springs area since the stand-off began in May 2020, tensions remain in Depsang Plains and Demchok.
Both sides have failed to make any headway with regard to Depsang and Demchok, where tensions predate the ongoing stand-off.
Moreover, while troops have disengaged at several locations along the LAC, they remain deployed in forward areas along with their heavy military equipment.
India has sought for de-escalation, which entails return of all additional troops and equipment in forward areas to their pre-April 2020 positions.
However, the Chinese have been showing no inclination for the same and want to treat the current holding positions as the new status quo.
ThePrint had in December last year, after the 17th round of talks, reported that both sides have failed to achieve any breakthrough over the issue of de-escalation and Depsang Plains.
That meeting was held days after Chinese troops clashed with Indian soldiers in the tense Yangtse area of Arunachal Pradesh on 9 December.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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