India, China hold 18th round of talks on LAC

The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Sunday held the 18th round of military talks to ease tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) where the two sides have been locked in a border row for almost three years, officials familiar with the development said on Sunday.

The two sides last held the Corps Commander level talks in December 2022 to discuss outstanding issues along the border.

The India-China border row is set to enter its fourth year in early May. Despite four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and Hot Springs (PP-15), the Indian and Chinese armies still have more than 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.

The Indian and Chinese armies have held 18 rounds of talks so far, but problems at Depsang in Daulet Beg Oldi sector and Charding Nullah Junction (CNJ) in Demchok sector are still on the negotiating table. Outstanding issues were discussed but the outcome wasn’t known.

The talks come ahead of the Chinese defence minister’s upcoming visit to India for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meeting to be held in New Delhi on April 27-28, officials familiar with the development said on Sunday. There was no official statement on the LAC talks till the time this report was filed.

Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu and Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu are expected to hold bilateral meetings with their Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on April 27, while the main SCO defence ministers’ meeting will be held a day later. India is set to host the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in May. These meetings will culminate in the SCO Summit to be held in July — the first time India will host the event since joining the grouping in 2017. SCO includes eight member states — India, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

At their last meeting in December 2022, the two sides agreed to maintain “security and stability on the ground in the Western Sector” of the LAC. “The two sides agreed to stay in close contact and maintain dialogue through military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest,” a statement said. That meeting took place just 11 days after several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a clash along LAC at Yangtse, located near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

Li’s visit to New Delhi for the SCO defence ministers’ meeting is the first visit by a Chinese defence minister after the June 2020 Galwan clash that derailed bilateral ties. Twenty Indian soldiers killed in the seven-hour deadly conflict near Patrolling Point 14 in Galwan Valley. According to India’s assessment, PLA’s casualties were twice as many as Indian Army’s though Beijing officially claimed that only four Chinese soldiers were killed.

On April 19, Singh had expressed confidence in the Indian Army to handle any contingency along the country’s border with China even as he said talks would continue for peaceful resolution of the lingering row in the Ladakh sector, and disengagement and de-escalation were the best way forward.

In March, India announced the setting up of a top panel to fast-track infrastructure projects in areas close to the China border where negotiations are on to end the stalemate.

The decision to set up a committee of secretaries to accelerate the projects was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Singh to review the progress of a raft on infrastructure projects along the China border. The projects being executed in forward areas involve several ministries including defence; road transport and highways; environment, forest and climate change; railways and communications, and power and new and renewable energy.

The secretaries of these ministries form part of the new committee, which will meet at frequent intervals to monitor the progress of different projects.

The army is building infrastructure at a rapid pace in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh with focus on better living experience and improved facilities for soldiers, conservation of modern weapons and equipment deployed there, and supporting faster movement of men and material to deal with any contingency amid the ongoing standoff with PLA.

India has inducted thousands of extra troops and modern military weaponry into the Ladakh sector to counter the Chinese military build-up after the standoff began in May 2020, and the changed dynamics along LAC has necessitated the infrastructure push aimed at enhancing efficiency of the army’s deployments.

The steps taken by the army to support its forward deployments along LAC include building of modular shelters for troops deployed at heights of up to 18,000 feet, habitat for reserve troops in rear locations, storage facilities for tanks, artillery guns and other equipment, underground facilities for ammunition storage, airfields, and new roads, bridges and tunnels in difficult terrain for improved connectivity.