Indo-China dispute

India and China make progress on border talks – media, 09.26.2024.

The two nuclear powers clashed along their Himalayan frontier in 2020 and have been negotiating ever since.

India and China have made “significant progress” on resolving issues along their border in eastern Ladakh, the Indian Express newspaper reported on Thursday. The region has been the focal point of military tension between the two neighbors since a deadly standoff in 2020.

Ties between the two Asian powers nosedived after the clash between their troops in the remote Himalayan region four years ago resulted in casualties on both sides. More than 30 rounds of high-level diplomatic and military talks have been held in the ensuing years.

Headway was reportedly made at the 31st Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) talks held on August 29 in Beijing. Indian troops could soon regain access to certain patrol points along the contested border previously blocked by Chinese forces, or to buffer zones set up during disengagement efforts, sources told the newspaper.

New Delhi and Beijing are exploring a potential solution based on their positions before April 2020 along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), a 3,500-km (around 2,100-mile) poorly defined border in the Himalayas. Ways to address issues related to Arunachal Pradesh, a disputed area in the eastern sector of the border, are also being explored, the report noted.

In March, Beijing “strongly deplored” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, during which he inaugurated a tunnel that would hasten the deployment of Indian soldiers to the border area. A month later, New Delhi reacted angrily to China’s attempts to rename 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh, saying the state would always be an “integral and inalienable part of India.”

Officials have indicated that the 22nd round of Corps Commander-level talks will soon follow to iron out the specifics of the deployment of troops on either side, including a timeline for actions based on mutual agreements. The 2020 standoff has left over 50,000 troops from each side deployed along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, according to Indian media.

Despite various disengagement efforts, both sides have maintained a heightened state of alert, with troops and weaponry systems stationed 4,000 meters (over 13,000ft) above sea level, in extreme conditions.

Both Beijing and New Delhi have expressed willingness to work together to iron out their differences. Notably, the report came just hours after Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, speaking at an event in New York, said that the countries were able to “sort out much of the disengagement, the friction points, but some of the patrolling issues need to be resolved.”

Jaishankar has previously asserted that New Delhi has resolved to improve ties with China during Modi’s third term as prime minister.

https://www.rt.com/india/604726-india-and-china-make-progress/