India and China have agreed to step up efforts to withdraw troops and ease tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the side lines of the BRICS summit in South Africa, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said on August 24.
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Meeting between Modi and Xi
The meeting between Modi and Xi took place on August 23, sources said, when the two leaders attended the BRICS summit in Johannesburg along with the leaders of Brazil, Russia and South Africa. However, the news of the negotiations was kept under wraps until the next day, just before the prime minister left for Greece.
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While Modi and Xi spoke briefly on the sidelines of the Bali G-20 summit dinner last year about the need to “stabilize LAC”, this is the first such conversation in three years where the two leaders talked at length about how to resolve the thing Since April 2020, the LAC region has been in an ongoing military confrontation following violations and subsequent killings by the Chinese army in Galwan, eastern Ladakh.
The talks between the two leaders could mark a thaw in relations that have been simmering since the standoff began, with Indian officials saying “business as usual” cannot continue while the LAC situation continues.
“Respect LAC”
“During the discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping, PM emphasized India’s concern about the unresolved issues in Latin America and the Caribbean in the western sector of the India-China border areas,” Kwatra said during a media briefing at the end of the three-day event in Johannesburg.
He also added that Modi emphasized that keeping peace and tranquillity in the border regions and observing and respecting the LAC countries are essential for the normalization of relations between India and China.
However, the foreign minister’s statement did not mention the prime minister’s reference to India’s previous position that it was necessary to return to the “status quo ante” of April 2020 to resolve the conflict.
Kwatra’s Words
Mr Kwatra said the two leaders had decided to “direct their relevant officials to step up efforts for rapid disengagement and de-escalation”, indicating that talks between LAC military chiefs were now underway. Those talks resumed earlier this month after the 19th round of negotiations ended in failure on August 14.
The talks resumed a few days later, with top generals from both sides discussing the standoff over troop withdrawals in the Depsang plains and Demchok region in eastern Ladakh, where the Chinese army is said to have deployed thousands of troops and built fortified infrastructure. In addition, the creation of buffer zones as part of agreements between the parties limited troop patrols.
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Although no time frame was given for a “quick” resolution of the issue after the meeting between the two leaders, the situation bears some similarities to the 2017 Doklam standoff between India and China, which ended after a similar meeting between Modi and Xi. on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg that same year.
India-China relations were revived after the Prime Minister traveled to China for the BRICS summit that same year. In this case, the BRICS summit provided a meeting place for the two heads of state, while the Chinese president will travel to Delhi for the G20 summit from September 9, where the leaders can continue their discussions. Modi and Xi may also attend an East Asia summit that begins in Indonesia on September 6, just before the G20 summit, although neither side has officially announced travel plans for the next two months.