Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 4: Contrary to the general belief, the defence minister Rajnath Singh is likely to meet his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in Moscow later Friday evening in a bid to break the deadlock in Ladakh.
According to the official sources in Delhi, the meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation ministerial meet currently on in Moscow, had been arranged mutually on behest of both the sides to break the impasse with both India and China deploying large contingents of army in the Indo-China border.
The official information before Singh embarked upon his three-day visit to Moscow since Thursday was that India was cold-shouldering a meeting with China on the sidelines of the SCO meet unless there was a chance encounter between the two since Beijing was not responding favourably to the understandings in the military level meetings about pulling back its troops from the Line of Actual Control.
The meeting, if happened, would be the first major political contact between India and China since the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) attempted to unilaterally change the status quo on the LAC in May in east Ladakh.
That the Ladakh stand-off would be the main topic of discussion was evident from the presence of ministry of external affairs joint secretary (East Asia) Naveen Srivastava in Moscow on Friday. Srivastava has held a series of conversations with his Chinese counterpart under the working mechanism for consultation and coordination on India-China border affairs towards disengagement and de-escalation of the PLA in the contested sectors.
The meeting between two defence ministers is crucial considering that both held top positions in their respective governments. While Singh is number two in the Narendra Modi cabinet, Gen Wei is, a former missile force commander, is a state councillor and member of the all-powerful Central Military Commission. The CMC, headed by Xi Jinping, controls the PLA with the President as its commander-in-chief.
After this meeting between the two defence ministers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at the same platform in Moscow on September 10.
The ministerial-level meeting between India and China comes at a time when PLA and the Indian Army are locked in a tense posture in Ladakh and occupied Aksai Chin with the two sides insisting on their respective claim lines to be the true LAC.
While PLA initially had made gains on the ground north of Pangong Tso in May and June, the Indian Army has nullified the dominance by repositioning on the heights overlooking Finger four on the lake and make tactical gains on south banks of the contested lake by pre-empting the Chinese troops.
“It is a game of pressure and time. The first one who blinks loses the match. The only way out is that both sides restore status quo ante and walk out of the military cul de sac respectfully,” a military commander said.
