‘The current situation at LAC is not in the interest of either side’
Agreeing on “quick disengagement of troops” from a months-long standoff at Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the Foreign Ministries of China and India have decided to “maintain peace and continue the dialogue process” to resolve the disputes.
On Friday, aimed to resolve the issues, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers’ meeting in Moscow to try and end the dispute, the most serious in decades at the undemarcated border, a report by an international news organisation Aljazeera said.
“The two Foreign Ministers agreed that the current situation in the border areas is not in the interest of either side. They agreed therefore that the border troops of both sides should continue their dialogue, quickly disengage, maintain proper distance and ease tensions,” the report quoted the ministers as saying in a joint statement.
In this regard, China in a separate statement, according to Aljazeera, said that China’s Foreign Ministry said it would maintain communications with India through diplomatic and military channels and commit to “restoring peace and tranquillity” in the disputed border area.
China on meeting in a Moscow, further said that Wang had told Jaishankar that the “imperative is to immediately stop provocations such as firing and other dangerous actions that violate the commitments made by the two sides”.
“All personnel and equipment that have trespassed at the border must be moved and frontier troops on both sides must quickly disengage in order to de-escalate the situation,” the report quoted Wang as having said.
“This deal is significant but on the other hand I am still cautious. Let’s wait and see what transpires in the next few weeks and months. That will be the crucial test,” Sumit Ganguly, a professor of political science at Indiana University in Bloomington, the United States, told Aljazeera.
This deal is significant but on the other hand I am still cautious. Let’s wait and see what transpires in the next few weeks and months. “I think both sides have considerable reasons to de-escalate,” he told Al Jazeera.
“In the case of India, the economy has cratered in the wake of the COVID crisis and the shambolic handling thereof. And consequently India can ill afford to devote significant resources to the military at this particular juncture,” the report quoted Ganguly further saying.
“The Chinese did not want it to become a major distraction as their economy is finally recovering, and they are focused on the November elections in the US.”
Commenting on the five-point agreement between the two countries, Ganguly said they would probably involve withdrawing troops from eyeball-to-eyeball contact with one another.
“They would involve reducing certain kinds of actual deployment of artillery and other weaponry along particular band of territory,” the report quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday said it hoped China and India would find a solution as soon as possible to de-escalate renewed tensions, a Russia based news agency Interfax reported.
As both the countries have differing perceptions of what constitutes the Line of Actual Control, tensions in the region have been high since May when India said that Chinese troops took control of its territory patrolled by Indian soldiers for decades in Ladakh region.
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