Once again, a marathon meeting between Major General-rank officers of India and China failed to break the deadlock over tensions in the Depsang Plains region along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The meeting took place on Sunday in what was called the last-ditch attempt at the top military level to break the impasse over the ongoing standoff along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. Sources told The Daily Guardian that Chinese PLA was not ready to relent on its position, and no amount of persuasion on the part of Indian side could achieve any progress.
“They continued to justify their position offering what turned out to be very flimsy evidence,” an official said. Indian side confronted them with several counter evidence which were convincing too, but Chinese refused to buy that. Indian officials believe that Chinese have, in fact, made up their mind not to listen to any arguments from India no matter how convincing that might be.
Sources say now the only option that remains to be used is diplomatic level efforts to achieve some breakthrough. Though diplomatic efforts are already underway to step up pressure on China, the high-level parleys are being planned between both the countries to hammer out some solution. Meanwhile, India is not going to ease the pressure that it has been able to mount on China with the help of its foreign allies. In the trade sector, China is already feeling the heat worldwide. Now, the diplomatic parley for the LAC disengagement process will be fixed. Sources say that a date for this will soon be announced and it could be in August itself.
What is worrying is that there is no significant change in the ground situation in Ladakh.