New Delhi: At the military commanders' talks on border issues on Sunday, October 10, the Indian side maintained a clear and assertive posture telling China that "the situation along the LAC had been caused by unilateral" attempts by Beijing to alter the status quo and in violation of the bilateral agreements.
"It was therefore necessary that the Chinese side take appropriate steps in the remaining areas so as to restore peace and tranquillity along the LAC in the Western Sector," a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs said.
During the meeting, the Indian side "made constructive suggestions" to resolve the remaining areas, but the Chinese side was not agreeable and could not provide any forward-looking proposals. "The meeting thus did not result in resolution of the remaining areas".
The focus of the latest round of talks was to ease tensions at Hot Springs and Depsang. However, the two sides have agreed to maintain communications and also to maintain stability on the ground.
"This would also be in accord with the guidance provided by the two Foreign Ministers in their recent meeting in Dushanbe where they had agreed that the two sides should resolve the remaining issues at the earliest," the MEA stated.
The Indian side also emphasised such resolution of the remaining areas would facilitate progress in the bilateral relations.
"It is our expectation that the Chinese side will take into account the overall perspective of bilateral relations and will work towards an early resolution of the remaining issues while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols," the statement said.
The talks on Sunday at Moldo on the Chinese side of the LAC lasted for about nine hours. It was held more than two months after the last round of talks, which led to the disengagement of forward-deployed troops from Gogra or Patrol Point-17A, one of the LAC flashpoints.
Recently, Chinese troops tried to transgress in Uttarakhand's Barahoti sector and along Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. Indian forces nevertheless thwarted the attempts. Both the armies still have around 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry in the Ladakh theatre.
India and China – considered two Asian giants – have been engaged in a military standoff since May 2020 along the LAC in Ladakh since New Delhi first detected Chinese intrusions.
Having landed at Dushanbe in Tajikistan on September 16, 2021, for the much-awaited SCO Meeting, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishanar held crucial bilateral talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. He had emphasised that "India does not subscribe to any clash of civilisations theory." New Delhi has insisted that the Indian side has only made counter deployments in response to China's "provocative behaviours".
"We had already made our position clear a few days back that we reject such statements which have no basis in facts. It was the amassing of a large number of troops by the Chinese side, their provocative behavior and unilateral attempts to alter the status quo in contravention of all our bilateral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquility along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh," MEA spokesman Arindam Bagchi has said in response to a question on September 30.
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