New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is scheduled to join his Chinese and Russian counterparts at a virtual conference of the Russia-India-China trilateral about the ongoing border row over the Galwan valley clashes.
Expressing hope, Defense expert Qamar Agha told ETV Bharat that Russia is a very important factor in the whole scenario because Russia is the one which has leverage over China and very friendly with India.
"Earlier we have seen, Russia played a very positive role during the Doklam crisis. It was Russia that pressurized Chinese leadership not to go in confrontation move with India and withdraw from Doklam. Russia doesn't want India to fall weak as it shares a strong strategic partnership, at the same time, it doesn't want China to be the only dominant power in the world", he cited.
India has a big role to play not only in South Asia but in Indo- Pacific region so India should adopt a fine balancing act, while maintaining good ties with America, endure warm relation with Russia, build up pressure on China to ensure that such incidents do not take place in the future.
Even China cannot afford a war with India given the weak economic condition, so they want such skirmishes at the border to build up nationalism in China.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is on a three-day visit to Russia to attend a military parade in Moscow on June 24 and is expected to have a series of meetings with top Russian military brass.
Agha said that Russia is one country which is a trusted friend of India and that lot can be expected from the country to reach out to both the countries, urging them to resolve the border row through talks.
India and Chinese troops, on June 15, engaged in their first deadly clashes since 1975, resulting in the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers, including that of a commanding officer. India and Chinese troops have been engaged in the standoff since early May at several points along the 3,500 km LAC, most of which remains demarcated.
"We trusted China and never expected the Chinese army to behave brutally. We thought them to be disciplined. There has been a trust deficit, in the past, China has betrayed us. China may be a wealthy nation but globally they receive no support. They have two major supporters -Pakistan and North Korea and have trade and economic relationships with other countries. India, on the other hand, has much deeper ties with African, Asian nations and these nations are very sympathetic to India," he said.
"I believe, China is very assertive as post corona, the nation is going to emerge as a powerful nation and they aim to replace America. China sees India as its competitors as they want to be the global leader in Asia. The biggest concern is Pakistan and China occupying India simultaneously -Pakistan on the J&K region and China on the Ladakh region. The strategy now should be the deployment of troops in both the areas including Uttarakhand and other border areas", he pointed out.
Amid the ongoing tensed military and diplomatic standoff between the two nuclear-armed Asian neighbours, following which the Corps Commanders of the Indian and Chinese armies held another round of talks at the Chushul-Moldo border personnel meeting point in eastern Ladakh to de-escalate the ongoing tension between the two countries due to the Galway valley clashes last week.
Qamar Agha underlines that commander level meeting would not be able to de-escalate the tension.
"Through such a meeting, they are preventing further escalation, trying to maintain status quo in the border and I implementing the old ceasefire agreement between the two nations to avoid clashes where India lost 20 soldiers. The problem can be only sorted out at the foreign ministry level.
Although, armed forces are deployed the cost will increase especially at the time when the economy has slowed down. So, the best thing would be to sort it out diplomatically and army should be given full support to retaliate in case of such incidents, the policy that India adopted in the Pakistani border," he added.
Earlier, the MEA has cleared India's stand and categorically rejected China's claim of sovereignty over Galwan valley, asserting that attempts by the neighbouring country to "advance exaggerated and untenable "claims are "not acceptable".
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