India not ready allow any third country to mediate between itself and China

India is not in favour of any third country playing the role of a mediator to help resolve its military stand-off with China, although it has not yet rejected Russia’s proposal for a trilateral summit among President Vladimir Putin, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though Moscow is believed to have played a quiet role in making New Delhi and Beijing agree on restarting talks between the military leaders, the Modi Government is opposed to allowing any third country to formally mediate between India and China to resolve the 21-month-long stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

A source said that New Delhi had politely conveyed its position to the “government of a third country”, which had expressed interest to play a more formal role in mediating between India and China.

The military commanders of India and China are likely to meet on January 12 to restart negotiations to resolve the 21-month-long stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

New Delhi and Beijing of late agreed to restart negotiations after a three-month-long hiatus. The military commanders of the two nations will meet on January 12 next to hold the 14th round of negotiations. The 13th round of negotiation on October 10 had ended in a stalemate.

Moscow of late proposed a trilateral summit among Putin, Modi and Xi. New Delhi, however, remained non-committal on the proposal from Moscow.

Modi, Putin and Xi had held the second RIC (Russia-India-China) summit on the sideline of the G-20 conclave in Buenos Aires in December 2018 – almost 12 years after the then leaders of the three nations had held the first trilateral meeting. They had held the third RIC summit on the sideline of the G-20 meet in Osaka in June 2019.

The summit however could not be held in 2020 and 2021, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept the world and India’s relations with China hit a new low over the military stand-off along the LAC between the two nations in eastern Ladakh.

Putin held a video-conference with Xi less than 10 days after he visited New Delhi on December 6 and had a bilateral summit with Modi.

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