MOSCOW/NEW DELHI — Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fengahi in Moscow on Friday amid heightened border tension in eastern Ladakh. Talks began at 9:30 p.m. (Indian time) at a prominent hotel in Moscow, the capital of Russia. The Indian delegation also included Secretary of Defense Ajay Kumar and Indian Ambassador to Russia D.B. Venkatesh Verma.
This is the first high-level meeting between the two sides after the border dispute in Eastern Ladakh in early May. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar had previously held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi about the border standoff.
Singh and Wei are in Moscow to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) defense ministers’ Meeting. The SCO meeting was held during the day.
Indian government sources said the meeting was organized at the request of China’s defense minister.
“Peace and security in the region demands a climate of trust, non-aggression, peaceful resolution of differences and respect for international rules,” Singh said at the meeting.
Wei told Singh the sides should “cool down” the situation and “maintain peace and tranquility,” the Chinese ministry of defense said on its website. However, it said responsibility for the tensions “lies completely with India.”
“Not one inch of Chinese territory can be lost,” the ministry of defense said.
India’s defense ministry said in a tweet that Singh conveyed to his Chinese counterpart that “the two sides should continue their discussions, including through diplomatic and military channels, to ensure complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquility along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) at the earliest.”
The tweet came as local Indian and Chinese military commanders met for a sixth straight day Saturday at a border post to iron out differences in the Chushul area in Ladakh, where new flash points emerged last week, said a top military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. He did not provide any details.
The disputed 3,500-km (2,175-mile) border between the world’s two most populous countries stretches from the Ladakh region in the north to the Indian state of Sikkim. The latest standoff is over portions of a pristine landscape that boasts the world’s highest landing strip and a glacier that feeds one of the largest irrigation systems in the world.
Both sides accuse the other of provocative behavior including crossing into each other’s territory this week, and both have vowed to protect their territorial integrity.
India’s army chief, Gen. M.M. Naravane, visited the region Thursday and Friday and met with soldiers deployed in difficult terrain above 4,300 meters, the Indian ministry of defense said.
India said its soldiers thwarted movements by China’s military last weekend. China accused Indian troops of crossing established lines of control.
The two nations fought a border war in 1962 that spilled into Ladakh and ended in an uneasy truce. Since then, troops have guarded the undefined border area, occasionally brawling. They have agreed not to attack each other with firearms.
Rival soldiers brawled in May and June with clubs, stones and their fists, leaving 20 Indian soldiers dead. China reported no casualties.
Both sides have pledged to safeguard their territory but also try to end the standoff, which has dramatically changed the India-China relationship. Several rounds of military and diplomatic talks on the crisis have been unsuccessful. — Agencies
