India and China are expected to hold the seventh round of their brigade commander-level talks in eastern Ladakh on Monday to minimize friction in the critical theatre, officials familiar with the developments said on Sunday, with military tensions shows no signs of subsiding along the country’s northern border.
The talks are supposed to commence at 9.30 am at Chushul, the officials stated, on the Indian part of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The Indian side will demand complete disengagement at all battlegrounds and early April status quo ante restoration, the officials added.
For even more than five months, the two nuclear powers are being engaged in a border conflict, with many rounds of diplomatic and military talks struggling to make a breakthrough in reducing border tensions in the region where both armies have made long-distance arrangements over the winter months.
The new military talks will take place weeks after China has hardened its stance and claimed to recognize the LAC of 1959, which India has never acknowledged. As reported on October 5, China’s strengthened stance has faded hopes for an early resolution of the border row.
China’s declaration that it adheres to the LAC as suggested to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by Premier Zhou Enlai in 1959 has complicated the border row in eastern Ladakh, calling into question the intention of Beijing to restore the status quo ante and de-escalate the dispute.
It was necessary to find a resolution to the dispute through talks, experts said. At different stages, both parties have said they do not want to intensify the dispute and to find a solution through talks. According to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) member Lieutenant General SL Narasimhan (retd), discussions at both military and diplomatic levels must continue to find a methodology to detach and de-escalate.
The dialogue on Monday will be the last round of military talks headed by Lieutenant-General Harinder Singh, the new commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps.
As commander of the Indian Military Academy, Singh, who has completed his one-year term, is going to Dehradun on October 15. Lieutenant General PGK Menon, who had also joined the recent round of military talks held on 21 September, is replacing him.
At the talks on 21 September, Indian negotiators strongly called for a systematic disengagement in all areas of friction and the preservation of the status quo ante as the only path to de-escalation. On the other side, in order to minimize tension, China asked India to withdraw its soldiers from strategic heights on the southern bank of Pangong Tso.
According to a joint statement issued on 22 September in New Delhi and Beijing, both sides agreed to avoid sending further troops to the front line and to “take realistic steps to correctly solve problems on the ground and jointly protect peace and tranquilly in the border zone.”
