- The latest round of Corps Commander level talks will take place almost four months after the last military dialogue was held on April 23.
- The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are likely to hold the 19th round of military talks to ease tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC).
- Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to be in New Delhi for the G20 summit in September.
- In July, India said Modi and Xi discussed the need to stabilize bilateral ties at a brief encounter on the margins of last year’s G20 Summit in Indonesia.
- India and China have been locked in a military standoff in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020.
- India has consistently said India-China relations cannot be normalized without restoring peace and tranquility on the border.
India and China will hold the 19th round of Corps Commander Level talks on August 14 aiming to resolve the ongoing military standoff over three years. The meeting between PLA officials and the Corp commander is likely to be held at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point in the Eastern Ladakh sector. Officials from the Ministry of External Affairs and ITBP are also expected to be part of the talks.
The two countries are indulged in a military impasse for the last three years since May 2020, when the Chinese tried to aggressively alter the status quo on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Earlier, on April 23, 2023, days ahead of Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu’s planned visit to India, the militaries of the two countries held the 18th round of high-level talks to resolve issues at the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh.
It was learnt that the Indian side insisted on resolving the issues at the remaining friction points of Demchok and Depsang in eastern Ladakh as soon as possible.
The 17th round of military talks was held on December 20. Following the dialogue, the two sides, in a joint statement, said they exchanged views in an “open and constructive” manner to resolve the “relevant issues” and that it was agreed to maintain “security and stability” on the ground in the region. The statement said the two sides agreed to stay in “close contact”, maintain dialogue through military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest.
The possibility of a meeting between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit has not been ruled out, people aware of the matter said. Also, the Chinese leader is expected to be in New Delhi for the G20 summit in September.
India has consistently said India-China relations cannot be normalized without restoring peace and tranquility on the border. The government’s focus on border infrastructure and connectivity over the past nine years has significantly improved India’s ability to respond to China’s actions along the LAC, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on August 7.
The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area. The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades. As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process on the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake and in the Gogra area.
(With inputs from agencies)
