The 18th round of India-China Corps Commander level talks failed to make headway on the contentious issue of the Depsang Plains and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Now, all eyes are on the bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart General Li Shangfu today (April 27). Shangfu is coming to New Delhi to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting to be held on April 27-28. Definitely, it will be a good opportunity for Rajnath Singh to use the meeting to increase pressure on the Chinese side for the complete and overall de-escalation along the LAC. During the talks, the Chinese Defence Minister must be reminded that normal ties between the two countries are not possible without resolving the LAC issues completely. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh should also use the meeting to serve a strong message to China over the misconducts and assertive agenda of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers along LAC in East Ladakh. The Chinese Minister must be asked to ensure that the PLA respect the agreement which says that the two sides will maintain the security and stability on the ground in the western sector. Though the meeting between the Indian and Chinese Defence Ministers is unlikely to resolve the LAC deadlock, the talks will be a much-needed opportunity for both sides to give further push to the on-going efforts to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border regions so that no untoward incident takes place in future. The defence ministers should discuss ways to somewhat bridge the trust deficit so that the tension along the entire 3,488-km LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh can be reduced. However, the foreign policy experts as well as the diplomats are not expecting much headway to be achieved during the meeting between Rajnath and Shangfu. The Chinese Defence Minister may try to build pressure on the Indian side to resume normal bilateral relations between the two countries even though the dialogue process to resolve the LAC issues is going on. During a meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang had once said that the boundary issue should be “kept in the proper place” in the ties. China, in fact, continues to maintain that the boundary issue should not be allowed to come in the way of bilateral ties. But India wants the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh to be completed at the remaining friction points before resuming bilateral exchanges. The statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs after the Sunday military commanders’ meeting reaffirms India’s position on normalising the bilateral ties with China. The statement read, “The two sides had a frank and in-depth discussion on the resolution of the relevant issues along the LAC in the western sector so as to restore peace and tranquillity in the border areas, which will enable progress in bilateral relations.” So, the Indian foreign ministry, in effect, signalled that the peace and tranquility in the border areas is the precondition for the progress in bilateral relations. While discussing the LAC issues, Rajnath Singh is expected to emphasise on this point, signalling that if China wants to normalise bilateral ties with India, it must work to ensure complete disengagement and de-escalation along LAC. Jaishankar on previous several occasions had described the state of bilateral relationship with China as “abnormal” in what was a clear message to Beijing that the normalisation of ties cannot be possible without resolving the boundary issues. Jaishankar has been reminding China on various platforms that the situation on the border is far from normal. In this context, he once said that the situation on LAC remained very fragile as there were points where Indian and Chinese troop deployments were quite dangerous in terms of military assessment. Rajnath Singh is also expected to give the same message to his Chinese counterpart, reminding that there is an urgent need for overall de-escalation for the normal diplomatic ties between New Delhi and Beijing.
