PM Modi calls on President Kovind as India-China military stand-off enters third month

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday – amid the continuing military stand-off along India-China disputed border in eastern Ladakh.

PM Modi briefed Kovind “on the issues of national and international importance”, Rashtrapati Bhavan posted on Twitter, but refrained from divulging further details. The meeting between the Prime Minister and the President, who is the supreme commander of the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy, is significant, as the stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between India and China in western sector – entered into the third month.

The Prime Minister called on the President two days after he visited Ladakh – closer to the scene of the stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – and took a subtle dig at China, stating that the era of expansionism was over and the history had witnessed that expansionist forces had always been defeated. Beijing reacted sharply, warned New Delhi against “strategic miscalculation” and dismissed the “expansionist” jibe as “groundless” claiming that China already settled its boundary with 12 of its 14 neighbours.

A source told the DH that the Prime Minister had briefed the President about his visit to Ladakh, the situation along the LAC and the status of the talks between the diplomats and the senior military officials of India and China to resolve the stand-off and defuse tension.

He also briefed the President about the continuous unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army along the Line of Control as well as the undisputed stretch of border between India and the western neighbouring country, said the source.

New Delhi is continuing talks with Beijing to resolve the stand-off in eastern Ladakh, but it also stepped up preparedness to deal with any flashpoint in middle and eastern sectors of the India-China disputed boundary, Modi is learnt to have conveyed to Kovind.

The two-month-long stand-off took New Delhi’s relations with Beijing to a new low, particularly after the violent clash between the soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between the two nations – at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15. The Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in the clash. The Chinese PLA too suffered casualties, but it did not make public the number of its soldiers, who were injured or killed in the violent face-off.

The Prime Minister seems to have also briefed the President about China’s military assertiveness elsewhere too – in South China Sea, East China Sea and Taiwan Strait. He also conveyed to the President that India was continuing diplomatic contacts with the United States, Russia, Japan, Australia and France and other like-minded friendly nations in the Indo-Pacific region, which were at the receiving end of the aggression of the communist country.

Lt Gen Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 14 corps of the Indian Army, had yet another marathon meeting with his counterpart Maj Gen Liu Lin of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Chushul-Moldo point on the LAC on June 30. It was the third meeting between them after transgressions by the Chinese PLA in multiple locations across the LAC in eastern Ladakh and build-ups as well as the Indian Army’s countermeasures escalated tension along India-China disputed boundary. They earlier had similar meetings on June 6 and June 22.

The senior diplomats of India and China also had video-conferences on June 5 and June 22, with the last one being held within the framework of the “Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on Border Affairs, which was instituted in 2013.