Senior Indian and Chinese officials met again in Beijing to talk about the standoff in the Ladakh sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). There were no immediate signs of a breakthrough, but both sides agreed to keep in touch regularly through diplomatic and military channels.
As stated in a statement, “the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on how to achieve complete disengagement and resolve the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of the India-China border areas.”
The readout didn’t go into specifics, but it did say that “in the meantime,” both sides decided to keep in touch regularly through diplomatic and military channels and to keep the border areas peaceful and quiet in line with existing bilateral agreements and protocols.
Join the 29th meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs. The Joint Secretary (East Asia) from the Ministry of External Affairs led the Indian team. The Chinese team was led by the Director General of the Boundary and Oceanic Department in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As of June 2020, the Galwan Valley in Ladakh was the center of a lot of fighting between India and China. When fighting broke out between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley, things got worse. There were injuries and deaths on both sides of the fight, which was the worst worsening of the border issue between the two countries in decades.
Both sides sent more troops and military weapons to the area after the fight. The two countries also started talking to each other at the diplomatic and military levels to try to calm things down and keep things from getting worse.
India-China relations are at their worst point in 60 years right now. New Delhi says that the relationship can’t get back to normal until peace and quiet are restored along the Land Border Corridor (LAC). To keep things calm, both sides have sent more than 50,000 troops to the Ladakh sector since the standoff started.
The Indian and Chinese armies still have tens of thousands of troops and modern weapons in the Ladakh theater, even though they have been pulled out of Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A), and Hot Springs (PP-15) four times. There are still problems at Depsang and Demchok that are being talked about.
