In this article, senior journalist Smita Sharma talks about how the process of disengagement of military troops has initiated after Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks to restore peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control(LAC). After military talks, India said that it will strictly respect LAC and on the other hand, China claimed to defend territorial integrity.
New Delhi: Eight weeks into the stand off at the Line Of Actual Control and weeks after 20 Indian Jawans lost their lives in violent clashes with Chinese PLA at Galwan Valley on the night of 15th June, limited de-escalation has begun. This comes a day after the Special Representatives on both sides for Boundary Dialogue held a conversation, the Ministry of External Affairs has now confirmed.
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and State Councillor and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a telephone conversation on Sunday 5th of July for nearly two hours said sources, exchanging ‘Frank and In-Depth Views’ on the Western Sector in Ladakh.
Earlier last month, Foreign Minister Jaishankar held a phone with Wang Yi following the Galwan clashes.. The two leaders later were also a part of a virtual meeting along with their Russian counterpart under the RIC (Russia-India-China) framework on Covid 19 cooperation. However the bilateral LAC dispute was not a part of the RIC agenda.
The Sunday conversation gains significance as Doval and Wang Yi are the SR’s appointed to look at a resolution to the boundary dispute. As per the existing government hierarchy in Beijing, the State Councillor is a rank higher than the Foreign Minister. Doval was dealing with Yang Jeichi who was the Chinese State Councillor and SR till 2017. Wang Yi was only the Foreign Minister then.
India has now signalled a higher level of diplomatic engagement by reactivating the channel between the two Special Representatives. According to officials, both agreed that differences must not be allowed to become disputes and underlined the existing consensus between the top political leaders to maintain peace and tranquility along the Indo-China border.
READ: Chinese Army pulls back troops from Galwan valley
“They agreed that it was necessary to ensure at the earliest complete disengagement of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquillity. In this regard they further agreed that both sides should complete the ongoing disengagement process along the LAC expeditiously,” said a formal Indian government statement.
According to Indian officials, both SRs agreed to ensure a ‘phased and stepwise de-escalation’ in the India-China border areas, which was previously also agreed upon in several rounds of military talks.
“They re-affirmed that both sides should strictly respect and observe the line of actual control and should not take any unilateral action to alter the status quo and work together to avoid any incident in the future that could disturb peace and tranquillity in border areas,” added the formal statement five days after the Corps Commander level talks agreed on a step-by-step de-escalation in eastern Ladakh reportedly.
However, while underlining the importance of peace and tranquility at the border and long term strategic common interests of the two Asian neighbours, the Chinese Foreign Ministry formal statement makes no mention of ‘strictly respecting’ the LAC. Instead the Chinese statement in veiled remarks maintains that Galwan Valley violence was triggered by Indian soldiers.
“Not long ago, what happened in the western part of the border between India and China in the Galwan Valley is very clear.China will continue to effectively defend its territorial sovereignty and the border area and peace,” said the statement from Beijing.
"India and China have whoever agreed to continue diplomatic and military discussions including under the framework of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China border affairs (WMCC). The two SRs in their conversation agreed to ‘implement the understandings reached in a timely manner to achieve the above outcomes," said Indian officials.
‘It was also agreed that the two Special Representatives will continue their conversations to ensure full and enduring restoration of peace and tranquillity in the
India-China border areas in accordance with the bilateral agreements and protocols,” the MEA statement added.
