India and China were holding another round of talks on Wednesday, the third consecutive day of dialogue, to defuse fresh tensions triggered over the weekend by repeated Chinese attempts at intruding into Indian territory.
Both countries had sought the brigade commander level talks taking place at the request of both sides Chushul, on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to cool tensions, a person familiar with the matter said. The talks on Tuesday were “inconclusive,” the person said.
The situation on the southern banks of the picturesque Pangong Tso lake in was “quite seriously” tense, a second person familiar with the matter said given that Indian troops had moved in on 30 August into areas that it had held as well as some new positions that the Chinese have disputed as lying on their side of the LAC. Troops of the two sides were separated by 300-500 metres, making the possibility of a localized clash strong, say analysts.
According to the Indian foreign ministry, there have been repeated attempts by the Chinese to change the situation along the southern bank of the Pangong Tso that was earlier seen as undisputed and within Indian control. China trying to intrude along the south bank marked the attempt to open a new front in the standoff, another push towards aligning the undemarcated further westwards is the thinking within the Indian government.
Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong has indicated in a number of interactions with Indian groups via video links that New Delhi should accept the current status quo and resume normal ties with Beijing. The current situation includes Beijing’s new claims along the north bank of the Pangong Tso as well as at a point known at Patrolling Point 17A. At two other positions, known as Patrolling points 14 and 15, the two sides have created a buffer zone after extensive military and diplomatic talks. But there has been no breakthrough on the question of pullback of troops at PP 17 A and along the northern bank of Pangong Tso.
The uptick in tensions over the weekend of 29-30 August is seen as the most serious since troops of the two countries clashed violently in June, killing 20 on the Indian side and an unspecified number of soldiers on the Chinese side. Ties between India and China started to fray in May when New Delhi detected multiple intrusions by Chinese soldiers into its territory.
Meanwhile, officials in New Delhi ruled out the possibility of a meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on the margins of the regional Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Moscow this week.
Singh left for Moscow on Wednesday on a three day visit where he is expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu on further boosting bilateral defence cooperation. Defence ministers of all SCO member nations are expected to discuss regional security challenges in Moscow on Friday, officials said.
"Heading to Moscow. During this visit, I shall be attending the combined meeting of Defence Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) & CIS members in commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of victory in the World War II," Singh said in a Twitter post.
In his meeting with Shoigu, Singh is expected to push for the speedy delivery of a number of weapons systems, ammunition and spares to India under earlier contracts. One of the key systems that India has purchased from Russia is S-400 missile defence system with the first batch scheduled to be delivered in 2021. In October 2018, India had signed a $ 5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile system.
Russia has also invited Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar to attend the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting on 10 September.
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