Varying stands of Defence Ministers of India and China on the border situation

Ladakh Stand-Off 'Eroded Basis Of Bilateral Relations': Rajnath Singh Tells China's Defence Minister

The Wire, 28 April 2023, New Delhi: In their first meeting since the start of the May 2020 military stand-off, defence minister Rajnath Singh told his visiting Chinese counterpart General Li Shangu that the continuing violations at the Line of Actual Control have “eroded the entire basis of bilateral relations”.

The two ministers held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the meeting of the defence ministers on Thursday, during which they had “frank discussions about the developments in the India-China border areas”.

A career PLA officer, 65-year-old Li Shangfu was announced as the State Councillor and Defence minister. Incidentally, Li is on the US sanction blacklist under Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), for the transfer of Russia’s Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 missile system in September 2018. He was then the director of the Chinese military’s Equipment Development Department.

According to an Indian government communique, Singh said at the meeting that relations between India and China are “premised on the prevalence of peace and tranquillity at the border”.

The troops of the two countries have been at a stand-off at multiple points in eastern Ladakh since May 2020. India has claimed that Chinese soldiers had amassed and crossed the Line of Actual Control into claimed Indian territory. In the most serious clash at Galwan Valley in June 2020, twenty Indian soldiers died, while Beijing publicly only announced four fatalities.

Stating that issues at the LAC need to be resolved as per existing bilateral agreements, the defence minister conveyed, as per the Indian readout, that “violation of existing agreements has eroded the entire basis of bilateral relations and disengagement at the border will logically be followed with de-escalation”.

The Chinese minister, according to the Chinese government’s readout, reiterated the official position that the border issue should be placed “in an appropriate position in bilateral relations”. He also reiterated that both sides should “promote the transition of the border situation to normalised management”.

“It is hoped that the two sides will work together to continuously enhance mutual trust between the two militaries and make proper contributions to the development of bilateral relations,” he said.

Due to multiple rounds of talks, India and China have disengaged at Galwan, Gogra-Hotsprings and the north and south banks of Pangong Lake, which includes withdrawal and creation of no-patrol zones.

However, the two larger face-offs at Demchok and Depsang have still seen no progress, with China refusing to negotiate and doesn’t consider it as part of the current military stand-off.

The Chinese defence minister’s reference to “normalised management” echoed Beijing’s position that was first articulated by China’s then ambassador to India, Sun Weidong in September 2022. After the disengagement at the Gogra-Hotsprings PP15, Sun had said that the phase of “emergency response” was over and that border situation was “switching to normalised management and control”.

Ahead of the SCO meeting, military and foreign office officials participated in the 18th round of the Corp Commanders on Sunday. Instead of a joint statement, both sides had issued separate press releases with differing talking points, which indicated that there was still no meeting of minds on the remaining issues.