India, China conclude 13th round of LAC talks
NEW DELHI: Corps commanders of Indian and Chinese armies held talks on Sunday to resolve problems at friction points on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, where the countries have been locked in a border standoff for over 17 months, officials familiar with the development said.
The 13th round of parley began at 10.30am at Moldo on the Chinese side of LAC, the officials said, requesting anonymity. It came more than two months after the last round of talks that led to disengagement in early August of deployed troops at Gogra, or Patrol Point17A, which was one of the flashpoints of the border skirmishes.
The focus of the talks was to cool tensions at Hot Springs and Depsang, Hindustan Times reported on Sunday. Officials earlier said disengagement of rival soldiers deployed at Hot Springs was on the agenda for the 13th round of talks.
The parley comes at a time of massive military buildup and infrastructure development by the People’s Liberation Army across the LAC, with the Indian Army matching Chinese moves.
In February, the two sides pulled back troops and weaponry from Pangong Tso in Ladakh. Despite two rounds of disengagement at friction points this year, the two armies still have 50,000 to 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry in eastern Ladakh.
If the Chinese army is to stay in Ladakh, so is the Indian army, General Manoj Mukund Naravane, chief of the army staff, said on Saturday, flagging concerns about the continuing Chinese buildup in the area.
The latest round of military dialogue follows a face-off between Indian and Chinese soldiers along the border last week in Tawang in northeast India’s Arunachal Pradesh and another incursion by Chinese soldiers on August 30 in Uttarakhand in northern India.
Top Indian and Chinese commanders had agreed to a speedy resolution of outstanding issues on LAC at the 12th round of talks.
The dialogue had focussed on disengagement of troops from the remaining flashpoints on the contested border.
A joint statement issued after the 12th round described the talks as “a candid and in-depth exchange of views on resolution of remaining areas related to disengagement along LAC in the Western Sector of India-China border areas.”
Talking about the LAC situation, Naravane on Saturday said in Delhi: “It is a matter of concern that the large-scale buildup that occurred last year (when the border row erupted) continues to be in place.”
“To sustain that kind of buildup, there has been an equal amount of infrastructure development on the Chinese side. It means that they (PLA) are there to stay. We are keeping a close watch on the developments. But if they are there to
stay, we are there to stay too,” he said.
“If they continue to stay there for the second winter, it will definitely mean we will be in Line of Control (LoC) kind of situation (referring to the Indian and Pakistani deployments on the LoC), though not an active LoC as is there on the western front. We will have to keep a close eye on PLA troop buildup and deployments to ensure they don’t get into any misadventure once again,” Naravane said.
On PLA’s intentions, he said: “I wish I knew. The most difficult thing is to get into your adversary’s mind…But whatever those reasons may have been, I don’t think they have been able to achieve their aims because of the rapid response by the Indian armed forces.”