Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu will meet his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on April 27, the day the defence ministers’ meet of the SCO begins. Ahead of the meeting, on April 23, senior Indian and Chinese military officials held another round of talks to defuse the situation in eastern Ladakh.
Wang Yi, who held talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi on Friday, proposed a three-point approach to achieve the development of bilateral relations.
Addressing a press conference after talks with Wang Yi, S Jaishankar noted that 15 rounds of talks between senior military commanders have taken place over the eastern Ladakh standoff and pointed out that progress has been achieved on several friction points from the disengagement perspective.
Confirming the 15th round of high-level military talks on March 11, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing here that in the last round of talks in January, the “two sides had a candid, in-depth exchange of views the relevant issues about the west section of the China-India boundary and issued a joint press release.”
The 14th round of the India-China Corps Commander level meeting ended in a stalemate, with neither side reaching a conclusion on pending disengagement efforts at remaining friction points along the LAC.
The 14th round of Corps Commander-level talks are taking place at the Chushul-Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, sources in the security establishment said.
The talks will take place on January 12 at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point, on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, the sources said.
This bridge is being constructed in areas that have been under illegal occupation by China for around 60 years, Arindam Bagchi said.
At a virtual meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on border affairs, the two sides had "candid and in-depth” discussions on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and reviewed the developments since the last military talks, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
At the same time, Gen Naravane said that the development along northern borders in the past year showed that the armed forces will have to be continuously prepared. The comments by the Army chief came three days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India believes in resolving disputes with neighbours through dialogue but it will not tolerate if provoked or threatened.
The Galwan Valley face-off in June 2020 had triggered a large deployment of troops and heavy weaponry by India and China at multiple friction points along the Line of Actual Control
In the first deadly clash in the border area in nearly five decades, 20 Indian soldiers were killed on June 15 last year in the Galwan Valley, triggering a large deployment of troops and heavy weaponry by both armies at the friction points.
Qiu Ziming -- with over 2.5 million followers on China's twitter-like Weibo -- was sentenced to eight months in prison, the court in the eastern city of Nanjing announced on Tuesday.
The 10th round of the military dialogue took place on February 20, two days after both militaries concluded the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the North and South banks of the Pangong lake. The talks lasted for around 16 hours.
In responding to a question in Lok Sabha on whether China has admitted loss of lives of their commandos in the Galwan encounter, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the Central Military Commission of China on February 19 announced awarding posthumously honorary titles and merit citations to Chinese soldiers.
Admiral Philip S. Davidson, who commands the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command, described China’s aggression along the Line of Actual Control with India as a manifestation of Beijing’s “expansionary territorial ambitions”.
Responding to questions, Admiral Phil Davidson, Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, said that China has a vast disinformation machine.
Rahul Gandhi cited a news report that claimed that night satellite images show Chinese build-up in the Depsang region near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
Until recent years, China’s focus had been on information theft. But Beijing has been increasingly active in placing code into infrastructure systems, knowing that when it is discovered, the fear of an attack can be as powerful a tool as an attack itself
Images of PLA dismantling their infrastructure and camps after the Galwan border clashes to revert to their original positions on the LAC is a rare sight indeed. New Delhi’s hard bargaining on the standoff sites in the Pangong Tso area appears to have paid off for now, against Beijing’s rank miscalculation.
In the talks, India is learnt to have insisted on a faster disengagement process in areas like Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang to bring down tension in the region that has witnessed a standoff between the two militaries for over nine months.
The Indian delegation at the talks will be led by Lt Gen PGK Menon, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps.
A People's Liberation Army colonel, who reportedly sustained serious injuries during the Galwan Valley clash, was also conferred with an honorary title by China’s Central Military Commission
Lieutenant General YK Joshi said there was a chance of the India-China border stand-off escalating into an armed conflict after the Indian Army used the quid pro quo option and occupied Rezang La and Rechin La in late-August 2020
Chinese forces won't carry out any activity on the area claimed by India on the side of Finger 8 along the Pangong Lake, Lieutenant General YK Joshi said.