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India, China army talks to resolve border dispute fail

Monday, 11 October 2021 9:08 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 11 October 2021 9:54 AM ]

This picture, taken on September 28, 2021, shows Indian soldiers on guard near the under-construction Zojila tunnel in Ladakh, in the Himalayas. (By AFP)

Indian and Chinese commanders have ended bilateral talks aimed at resolving a protracted military standoff on their countries' shared border without results.

Each side blamed the other on Monday for their failure to make headway despite more than a dozen rounds of talks to diffuse the situation.

"During the meeting, the Indian side… made constructive suggestions for resolving the remaining areas but the Chinese side was not agreeable and also could not provide any forward-looking proposals," the Indian army said in a statement, adding the talks had concluded without any results.

"The meeting thus did not result in resolution of the remaining areas," the army stated in its report on the corps commander-level talks held in Moldo, on the Chinese side of the Ladakh area border line, referred to as the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which divides the Himalayan territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Chinese military confirmed the talks had failed. It blamed India for "unreasonable and unrealistic demands" resulting in failure.

A statement from the Chinese military's Western Theater Command said its delegation had made "tremendous efforts to ease and cool down the border situation and fully demonstrated its sincerity," but "the Indian side sticks to unreasonable and unrealistic demands, adding difficulties to the negotiations."

Troops from both sides used to retreat from the region during cold seasons, but since the latest face-off started in May 2020, they have remained in place near the disputed border.

India moves 50,000 troops to China border in new military ‘offensive’ posture: Report

India moves at least 50,000 additional forces to its border with China in what is viewed as a monumental shift towards an offensive military posture against the Asian power.

China has reportedly been building dozens of large weather-proof structures along the LAC in eastern Ladakh for its troops to stay in during the winter.

Indian media reported new helipads, the widening of airstrips, new barracks, new surface-to-air missile sites, and radar sites in the region, which China claims in its entirety.

India and China fought a deadly war over the region in 1962.

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