After 4 months of military confrontation between India and China, for the first time both the country’s defence ministers met on Friday to discuss the issue.
On Friday, India and China held a high-level meeting comprising Indian defence minister Rajanath Singh and Chinese defence minister Gen Wei Fenghe.
Since May 2020, the deadlock is continuing over the military confrontations from both sides. Though military-level talks are being held, they could not break this deadlock. Citing the intensity of the issue, for the first time, a high-level political meeting was held on Friday in Moscow between Rajnath Singh and Wei Fenghe. However, the outcome of the meeting was not publicised.
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Though no breakthrough was expected from this meeting, India has got a chance to make its stand clear to its counterpart that China should restore the status quo immediately and unconditionally.
The meeting was accompanied by defence secretary Ajay Kumar, joint secretary (East Asia) in the foreign ministry Naveen Srivastava and Indian ambassador to Russia D Bala Venkatesh Varma along with Rajnath Singh and other from the Indian side.
It is believed that China also stated that it is not ready to give up even an inch of land from its side. Though the meeting does not draw a conclusive line over the ongoing tend=sions, it can be said that these talks are more substantial compared to both country’s foreign ministers S.Jaishankar (India) and Wang Yi (China) meeting held on September 10, 2020.
Before the meeting, Rajnath Singh talking to media persons stated that
demands a climate of trust and cooperation, non-aggression, respect for international rules and norms, sensitivity to each other’s interest and peaceful resolution of differences.
He further said –
If I may borrow an idea articulated by our Prime Minister in a different context, our goal should be Security and Growth for all in the Region.
Rajnath reaffirmed India’s commitment to
open, transparent, inclusive, rules-based and anchored in in international laws
India has been demanding China to withdraw its aggression from LAC (Line of Actual Control) at Pangong Tso, Gogra and Depsang. China has built up troops at face-off sites since April 2020.