India, China hold border talks: Will the two sides be able to finally resolve the standoff?

Will the 19th round of talks be the one that helps India and China find a resolution for the standoff at the Line of Actual Control? At least, that’s what both sides are hoping for as they go in for discussions today, after the previous round of talks were held in April. Notably, the 19th round of talks come just a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping come face to face at the BRICS summit in South Africa, and the latter’s planned visit to India for the G20 Leaders Summit on 9 and 10 September. What is the focus on the talks today? Who is leading the talks and where are they being held? Will the deliberations bear any fruit? The who and where of the talks The Indian and Chinese delegations will meet at Chushul today in an ongoing effort to resolve the standoff in eastern Ladakh. The Indian delegation will be led by 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen Rashim Bali. Officials from Ministry of External Affairs and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) are also expected to be part of the talks, reported news agency ANI. On the other hand, the Chinese team is expected to be led by the commander of the South Xinjiang Military District. The talks today (14 August) come after both sides had met at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on the LAC in late April. However, it ended in a stalemate; the two sides didn’t even agree on a joint press release, unlike the 16th and the 17th rounds of negotiations on 18 July 2022 and 20 December last year. The MEA in a statement later had said, “The two sides had a frank and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the relevant issues along the LAC in the Western Sector so as to restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, which will enable progress in bilateral relations.” [caption id=“attachment_12994222” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Today’s talks come four months after both sides had held discussions in April at Moldo on the Indian side in eastern Ladakh. File image/PTI[/caption] Agenda of the talks The Indian side, it has been learnt, will once again press for troop disengagement at the strategically located Depsang Plains as well as Demchok in eastern Ladakh during the 19th round of talks. Since the talks began after the Galwan incident – the deadliest clash between India and China in 45 years – there has been disengagement from five friction points — at Galwan after the violent clash in June 2020, the north and south banks of Pangong Tso in February 2021, at Patrolling Point (PP) 17 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area in August 2021, and PP15 in September 2022. Also read: The significance of disengagement at Hot Springs, Gogra Post in India-China conflict However, the Depsang Plains and Demchok continue to be a sticking point between the two nations. For the unaware, the Depsang Plains is a 972 square kilometre area at over 16,400 feet that comes under India’s Sub Sector North (SSN). The SSN is sandwiched between the Siachen Glacier on one side and Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin on the other. Depsang, which is flat in nature, provides for perfect movement of tanks, and hence both sides covet it. Moreover, the Depsang Plains are actually more of a defensive feature in nature. [caption id=“attachment_12994242” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] An army convoy makes its way to Ladakh at Manali-Leh highway. File image/PTI[/caption] One defence expert also explained that any threat to Depsang can mean the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldie (DS-DBO) road can also be threatened. The 255-km long road connects Leh to the Karakoram Pass. “If the enemy cuts off the DBO, it makes India’s control over Karakoram pass untenable,” the source told The Print. India has long been demanding that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stop deliberately blocking Indian patrols in Depsang. Prior to April 2020, Indian patrols used the patrolling route, however, the PLA has now been craftily using a clause in the existing border agreements to block Indian patrols. The PLA stations a set of vehicles which block the designated patrolling route. In the April round of talks, the Chinese, according to insiders, had demanded the creation of a 15-20km buffer zone inside India-claimed lines on the st¬rategic Depsang Plains as a pr¬econdition for disengagement, refusing India’s offer of a 3-4 km demilitarised strip. A defence ministry official said India had rejected China’s “unjust” demand and that negotiations were on to resolve the standoff. Demchok is another friction point between the two countries. In Demchok while there are varying claims in the Charding La area, China has set up tents on this side of Charding nala. Increased activity at LAC Since the 2020 clash in Galwan, both sides have been ramping up activity and troops at the LAC. As per a PTI news report, Over 68,000 Army soldiers, around 90 tanks and other weapon systems were airlifted by the Indian Air Force to eastern Ladakh from across the country for rapid deployment along the LAC after the deadly clashes in the Galwan Valley. Moreover, the Army has also enhanced its combat capabilities in the region. It has deployed a significant number of easily transportable M-777 ultra-light howitzers in mountainous regions along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh. It has powered its units in Arunachal Pradesh with a sizeable number of US-manufactured all-terrain vehicles, 7.62MM Negev Light Machine Guns from Israel and various other lethal weapons. The Indian side has also been giving a major push to infrastructure development along the nearly 3,500 km long LAC following the eastern Ladakh faceoff. [caption id=“attachment_12994272” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Indian Army soldiers stand next to a Bofors gun positioned at Penga Teng Tso ahead of Tawang, near the Line of Actual Control (LAC), neighbouring China, in Arunachal Pradesh. File image/AFP[/caption] China too has been for the past three years consolidating its military positions in the region. It has not only deployed more forces and weaponry, but has also ramped up its infrastructure, building roads, bunkers and even setting up villages along the LAC. Furthermore, the Chinese air bases such as Hotan, Kashgar, Gargunsa, Shigatse, Hoping, Lingzhi and Lhasa-Gonggar have also been upgraded with new and extended runways, and more features. The Times of India has also reported that China is now also building seven to eight new airfields and heliports facing India. China has also been flexing its muscles along the Sikkim-Arunachal Pradesh frontier, which led to a clash between the troops on 9 December last year at Yangtse in the Tawang sector. Beijing has also renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, a move that has been rejected by New Delhi. Significance of the talks The 19th round of talks in Chushul come just as Prime Minister Modi is to travel to Johannesburg for the BRICS summit where China’s Xi Jinping is also expected. Interestingly, in 2017, when Indian and Chinese troops were in a border standoff at Doklam, the two sides had broken the two-and-half-month-old deadlock days before Modi and Xi were scheduled to meet for the BRICS summit in Xiamen (China). Moreover, both sides would want a resolution to this issue, as it is now in its third year. Security expert Lt Gen Sanjay Kulkarni (retired) was quoted as telling ANI that peace and tranquillity along the LAC is necessary if China wants good relations with India. “I sincerely hope that the 19th round of talks are success, because only then can the bilateral relations between the two countries can improve.” With inputs from agencies