Indian, Chinese diplomats have 'constructive, forward-looking' talks to completely end LAC stand-off

New Delhi: India on Wednesday had ‘constructive’ talks with China to resolve the more-than-four-year-long military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.

The Indian and Chinese diplomats met in New Delhi under the framework of the bilateral Working Mechanism on Consultation and Coordination (WMCC). The meeting was a follow-up to the two meetings External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart Wang Yi had in Astana and Vientiane this month.

“The discussion at the meeting was in-depth, constructive, and forward-looking,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement issued in New Delhi after the meeting. “Both sides agreed to maintain the momentum through the established diplomatic and military channels.”

The meeting of the Indian and Chinese diplomats was the 30th after the mechanism was set up in 2012 and the 15th after the military stand-off started along the LAC in eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.

Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary (East Asia) at the MEA, led the delegation of India in the meeting. The diplomats from Beijing were led by Hong Liang, Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government. Hong also called on Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri later.

The two sides reviewed the current situation along the LAC with a view to finding an early resolution of the “outstanding issues”, according to the statement issued by the MEA after the meeting of the Indian and Chinese diplomats on Wednesday.

India stressed that the restoration of peace and tranquillity, and respect for the LAC were an essential basis for the restoration of normalcy in its bilateral relations with China.

The diplomats of the two nations “agreed on the need to jointly uphold peace and tranquillity on the ground in the border areas in accordance with relevant bilateral agreements, protocols, and understandings reached between the two governments.”

The meeting of the diplomats of India and China on Wednesday is likely to be followed up by another round of talks between the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

The commander of the Indian Army’s XIV Corps based in Leh and his counterpart in the Chinese PLA had altogether 21 rounds of negotiations to resolve the stand-off along the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations – in eastern Ladakh in the last four years. The last meeting between the commanders of the two sides took place on February 19.

Though protracted negotiations led to the mutual withdrawal of troops by both the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA from some of the face-off points along the LAC, like Galwan Valley, the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra Post, and Hot Springs, the stand-off could not be resolved completely so far.

The PLA troops deployed in Depsang, well inside the territory of India along the LAC with China, are continuing to block the Indian Army’s access to Patrolling Points 10, 11, 12, 12A, and 13. A face-off is also continuing in Demchok.

Beijing, however, has been claiming that the mutual withdrawal of troops by the Chinese PLA and the Indian Army from Patrolling Point 15 (Gogra-Hotsprings area) in September 2022 marked the restoration of normalcy along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. China’s claim appears to be an attempt to subtly build up pressure on India to accept the “new normal” in the Depsang and Demchok areas.