With India and China likely to hold the 14th round of Corps Commander-level talks in the second half of December, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has prepared a full list of actions that the People’s Liberation of Army (PLA) has carried out along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) “in violation of agreements” between both the countries. “During the upcoming disengagement discussions on the issues related to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the PLA brass will be told in no uncertain terms that China has not given any credible explanation for such actions so far,” top MEA sources told The Daily Guardian.
According to sources, a high-level meeting between MEA and Defence Ministry officials was held recently to take stock of the Chinese activities along the eastern Ladakh sector. Another round of a similar interaction between the officials of both the ministries will be held after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit. Sources told The Daily Guardian that MEA will give its inputs to the Defence personnel ahead of the next round of Corps Commander-level meet, which is likely to be held by 15 December.
“At the 23rd meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), India and China had agreed to ensure a stable ground situation and avoid any untoward incident. But the PLA did not seem to follow that,” an official says. “There are reports about China investing heavily in upgrading military infrastructure along the LAC and also about a strong buildup by the PLA opposite Eastern Ladakh sector,” he added. According to sources, India has already registered a protest against the same through diplomatic and military channels. “But these activities need to be raised in a more candid, emphatic and forceful manner during the upcoming India-China senior commanders’ meeting,” sources added.
Sources say that there is proof of more violations of the agreement by the Chinese army which will be placed by the Indian army personnel during the Corp Commander-level meeting. A few days ago, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India and China are going through a “particularly bad patch” in their ties because Beijing has taken a set of actions in violation of agreements. Jaishankar also pointed out that it is for the Chinese leadership to answer where they want to take the bilateral relationship.
During his previous meeting with the Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on September 16, Jaishankar categorically said that the “two sides should work towards early resolution of the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh while fully abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols.” What is noteworthy is that Jaishankar has been repeatedly pointing it out to China that what the PLA is doing is just a violation of agreements that have happened between Delhi and Beijing. With this in view, the next round of India-China Corps Commander meeting will be quite crucial,” a diplomat said.
In the last meeting, China and India agreed that both sides should hold the next round of talks, the 14th round of the Senior Commanders meeting, at an early date, in order to “achieve the objective of complete disengagement from all the friction points along the LAC in the Western Sector in accordance with the existing bilateral agreements and protocols. “But the question is why the PLA is not abiding by the agreements or the commitment made by its own political leadership?” the diplomat asked.