Trump again offers to mediate, but India at ease with Russia’s discreet efforts to defuse tension along its LAC with China

Even as the United States President Donald Trump offered to help resolve the military stand-off between India and China, once again, New Delhi is more at ease with the discreet role the Russian government is playing to defuse tension between the two nations in eastern Ladakh.

Trump told journalists in White House late on Friday that his administration was in touch with both New Delhi and Beijing to resolve the “very nasty” stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two nations.

“While we are at it, we are talking about China and India, (they) are going at it pretty good on the border, as you know. It has been very nasty,” said the US President, adding: “And, we stand ready to help, with respect to China and India. If we can do anything, we would love to get involved and help. And we are talking to both countries about that.”

This is not the first time that Trump publicly offered to play the role of mediator between India and China. He had made the same offer in May – just weeks after the stand-off started in the wake of the aggressive moves by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to change the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh and the Indian Army’s counter deployment. New Delhi, however, cold-shouldered the US President’s offer, which was also outrightly rejected by Beijing.

Contrary to the public offers by the US President, Russia has been discreet in its efforts to help defuse tension between India and China.

Read | Don't attempt to unilaterally change status quo along LAC, Rajnath Singh tells Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe

Moscow has been officially maintaining that India and China should resolve the stand-off through bilateral talks. But the top diplomats of Russia have been quietly in touch with Indian and Chinese counterparts and have been trying to resolve tension between the two neighbours.

Moscow’s back-channel talks with New Delhi and Beijing played a significant role in setting the stage for bilateral talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his counterpart in Chinese Government, Wei Fenghe, on the side-line of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the capital of Russia on Friday Beijing sought the meeting between Singh and Wei and Moscow nudged New Delhi to accept it, sources told the DH.

Singh-Wei meeting was the first face-to-face talks between India and China at the level of the ministers after the stand-off started four months back.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also attend another SCO meet in Moscow on September 10. The meet will be hosted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Also Read | India, China to solve border dispute through dialogue: Wei Fenghe tells Rajnath Singh

Lavrov, according to the sources, has been in touch with New Delhi and Beijing over the past few days and made Jaishankar and Wang tentatively agree on holding a bilateral meeting on the side-line of the SCO Foreign Ministers’ conclave in Moscow.

Jaishankar and Wang earlier spoke to each other over phone on June 17 – just two days after the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA had a violent face-off in Galwan Valley, resulting in casualties on both sides.