New Delhi: In clear indication of Beijing’s belief that the immediate issues related to the military stand-off at Ladakh have been resolved, the Chinese ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, announced the “phase of emergency response” since the clash at Galwan in eastern Ladakh is over.
“The current border situation is overall stable. The phase of emergency response since the Galwan Valley incident has basically come to an end, and the border situation is now switching to normalised management and control,” said the Chinese envoy at a virtual event to mark the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Tuesday.
At least 23 Indian and Chinese troops died in hand-to-hand clashes at Galwan Valley in June 2020, which were the first fatalities along the LAC in four decades.
The Chinese ambassador’s remarks come nearly three weeks after India and China completed the disengagement of troops at Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area of eastern Ladakh.
It created the fourth ‘no-patrol buffer zone’ at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), after the earlier ones at Galwan Valley, Gogra and Pangong Tso banks. There has been concern that the buffer zones have largely stopped Indian soldiers from traversing into areas they had historically patrolled in the past.
There are still two remaining friction areas of Depsang and Demchok to be resolved, where Chinese troops have blocked Indian patrols more than 18 kilometres into claimed Indian territory since May 2020.
After the verification of the PP-15 disengagement, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that both sides had “agreed to take the talks forward and resolve the remaining issues along LAC and restore peace and tranquility in India-China border areas”.
External affairs minister S. Jaishankar had characterised the PP-15 disengagement as “one problem less on the border”, which implied that there were still other points to be settled.
Contrary to the Indian position, the Chinese ambassador has implied that no more disengagement process is required. China considers Depsang and Demchok to be relics of the long-standing border dispute and not related to the stand-off.
By far the most serious Chinese ingress has been in the Depsang area. The Chinese have created a blockade at Y Junction as a result of which Indian patrols which routinely patrolled the areas marked by Patrolling Points (PP) 10, 11, 11a, 12 and 13 have been prevented from doing their task. Map: Manoj Joshi
“The Chinese side is willing to maintain dialogues via diplomatic and military channels with the Indian side, and together seek solution to the border issues in a peaceful manner through dialogue and consultation,” added Sun.
In the same breath, he also asserted that India should be sensitive to China’s “core interests” on Taiwan and Tibet. “It is hoped that the Indian side can properly handle issues related to China’s core interests including Taiwan question and Xizang-related issues”.
The Chinese envoy had also stated that issues that could not be immediately resolved should be “put in a proper place and manage them in a proper way, without allowing them to disturb the overall development of the bilateral relations”.
He also painted an optimistic picture of India-China ties, claiming that in 2022, relations have “made new progress and shown positive momentum”.
Listing the signs of “positive momentum”, he noted both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the BRICS and SCO summits. However, the Chinese envoy didn’t mention that the two leaders did not have a personal meeting on the sidelines, despite participating in the same multilateral fora.
Sun observed that President Xi sent a congratulatory message to President Droupadi Murmu. “Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi paid a working visit to India, and the two foreign ministers exchanged in-depth views on improving bilateral relations several times”.
The other signs were the PP-15 disengagement and the resumption of processing of visas to Indian students, he said. Incidentally, India has recently criticised Beijing for putting a hold on the UNSC listing of several Pakistan-based terrorists and also issued advisory outlining risks to Indian students studying in China.
“We have arranged two charter flights in the past two months carrying 235 Indian businessmen back to Zhejiang Province of China,” added the Chinese ambassador.
Echoing foreign minister Wang Yi’s “Four-pronged perseverance”, Chinese ambassador Sun also suggested four proposals for improving ties – promoting mutual trust and understanding, win-win cooperation, properly handling of differences and sensitive issues and strengthening collaboration.