After Latest Round of India-China Talks, Both Sides Still Divided Over Remaining Issues in Ladakh

New Delhi: In the first meeting after the latest disengagement of troops at Gogra-Hot Springs, India and China held another round of foreign office-led talks on Thursday, where they re-committed to maintain peace at the border, but seemed to remain as divided as ever on the next steps to completely resolve the continuing stand-off.

On Thursday, the 25th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India -China Border Affairs was held virtually. The Indian side was led by the ministry of external affairs (MEA) joint secretary (East Asia), Shilpak Ambule, while the Chinese delegation was fronted by Hong Liang, director general, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs’ boundary and ocean affairs department.

The Mechanism has been an important channel for the two countries to keep talking while their militaries remain at a stand-off along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh since May 2020. The first year of the stand-off witnessed the first fatalities along the long mountainous border in four decades, with soldiers clashing in hand-to-hand fights.

Since then, the two sides have managed to de-escalate and withdraw their troops at four friction points, with the last taking place at Patrolling Point 15 (also known as Gogra-Hot Springs) in September.

However, the two remaining friction points of Depsang Plains and Demchok remain on the table, but India and China have differing views on when they should be resolved.

The separate press releases issued by the two foreign ministries on Thursday’s talks, not surprisingly, reflected the priorities in what they mentioned and did not.

According to the Indian external affairs ministry, the two sides “agreed to continue discussions through diplomatic and military channels to resolve the remaining issues along the LAC at the earliest so as to create conditions for the restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations”.

The Indian readout noted that both delegations agreed to hold the 17th round of senior commanders meeting “at an early date” to “achieve the objective of resolution of remaining issues along the LAC in the Western Sector”.

As per a rough translation, the Chinese press release mentioned that the two countries agreed that they “will conscientiously implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strictly abide by the agreements signed by the two sides and the relevant consensus reached, and jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border areas”.

The Chinese foreign ministry also stated that they agreed to hold the next round of military talks “as soon as possible”.

While the Indian side had two references to the “remaining issues along the LAC”, the Chinese press note did not have any similar phrases.

Instead, the Chinese press release said that the two sides “were willing to take measures to further ease the border situation and promote the border situation from emergency handling to normalized control”.

The reference to the transition from “emergency handling to normalized control” echoed the earlier statement by the Chinese ambassador Sun Weidong last month. “The phase of emergency response since the Galwan Valley incident has basically come to an end, and the border situation is now switching to normalised management and control,” said the Chinese envoy on September 28.

In response, the MEA spokesperson indicated – while answering questions – that the Indian side was not yet ready to ‘normalise’ ties, as several steps were still remaining.

“Some steps are necessary for complete normalcy, we have not reached that at all, but we would like that the whole sequence is there, that there is disengagement, de-escalation, then there is normalcy on the border so that there can be any regularity or normalcy in our overall relationship. We have not reached there yet,” said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on October 7.

Incidentally, the Indian readout highlighted the disengagement at Patrolling Point-15 in September, indicating its significance for New Delhi. It also specifically noted that this was a result of the "understandings between External Affairs Minister and Chinese State Councilor & Foreign Minister, including at their recent meeting in Bali in July 2022".

The Chinese statement did not cite the latest development at the border.

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