New Delhi: The seventh corps commander level meeting between India and China will have an interesting but very significant diplomatic representation from both sides with an official of the Chinese foreign affairs ministry expected to be part of the talks to be held between corps commanders at Chushul in eastern Ladakh on Monday morning.
“There will be a foreign ministry representative from the Chinese side as well. The meeting will start at 9:30 AM Indian time and about 11:30 AM Beijing time,” an official source told ETV Bharat.
This is the first time that a Chinese foreign ministry official will take part in the lieutenant-general level military talks between the two armies.
A joint secretary-level official from India’s ministry of external affairs who specializes in China had already been participating in the military talks since September 20.
It is understood that the high-level China Study Group has already deliberated and finalized the agenda for the meeting as far as India is concerned.
The Indian delegation at the talks with PLA will include Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander, 14 Corps, and Lieutenant General PGK Menon besides Navin Srivastava, the joint secretary in India’s MEA.
READ: US, Australia, India, Japan discuss China's growing power
This will be Gen Singh’s last participation in the ongoing talks before he takes up his next assignment as commandant, Indian Military Academy (IMA) at Dehradun. He will be succeeded by General Menon at 14 Corps.
The talks over the “disengagement and de-escalation process” is expected to witness greater hurdles now with China’s recent stand to restore territories on the basis of a 1959 claim line proposed by the then Chinese PM Chou en-Lai to his Indian counterpart Jawaharlal Nehru that was rejected by the latter. The latest Chinese posture also negates all existing negotiations and treaties.
The six meetings at the corps commander level on June 6, June 22, June 30, July 14, August 2 and September 21 have been fruitless so far.
Adding another complex dimension to the already tense India-China relationship, US national security adviser Robert O’Brien took a very aggressive position on Sunday saying talks with China won't work anymore. “The time has come to accept that dialogue and agreements will not persuade or compel the People’s Republic of China to change. There’s nothing to be gained from looking the other way or tuning the other cheek. We have been doing that for far too long.”
