Rajnath Singh, Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe talk peace, but troops are unlikely to pull out for now

Defence ministers of India and China have agreed to resolve the ongoing Sino-Indian border crisis in eastern Ladakh in a peaceful manner through “dialogue and consultation,” but there would be no immediate withdrawal of the troops because of the trust deficit that exists between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army.

On the sidelines of a multi-nation defence ministers’ conference in Moscow, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met his Chinese counterpart Gen Wei Fenghe on Friday for an in-depth discussion about the developments in the India-China border areas.

This is the first ever meeting at the Defence Ministers level between the two countries since the Sino-Indian border flared up in May in Ladakh. The meeting continued for two hours and twenty minutes.

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Singh told Gen Wei that China must respect the Line of Actual Control – the 3,488 km long disputed boundary between the two neighbours – without making attempts to change its status quo unilaterally.

Also the PLA troops should work with the Indian side for complete disengagement at the earliest from all friction areas including Pangong Lake and de-escalation in border areas.

“Amassing of a large number of troops, their aggressive behaviour and attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo were in violation of the bilateral agreements and not in keeping with the understandings reached between the two Special Representatives (National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi who discuss the boundary dispute),” Singh said.

Doval and Wang had a two hour telephonic conversation in July in the wake of the Galwan valley clash in which 20 Indian soldiers and a sizable number of PLA troops were killed in hand-to-hand combat.

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On his part, Gen Wei observed that the two countries should strengthen the regulation of frontline troops and not undertake any provocative actions that might escalate the situation, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Defence. The same statement was also issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

The two ministers agreed that both sides should scrupulously implement the consensus reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping and continued to solve the issues through dialogue and consultation, following various bilateral pacts.

Sources, however, said that it was unlikely for the Indian troops to vacate the front in east Ladakh unless there are “visible and verifiable” signs of a PLA retreat. Indian Army is ready for a long haul and made logistics arrangements to sustain the troops in harsh winters of Ladakh where the temperature dips to minus 35 degrees Celsius.

The five month long stand-off at several locations on the LAC is the biggest Sino-Indian border crisis since the 1962 war.