LAC situation ‘eroded strategic trust’: NSA Ajit Doval tells China’s Wang Yi
Ajit Doval and China’s top foreign policy official Wang Yi met on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs’ Meeting in Johannesburg on Monday.
Johannesburg: Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval Monday told top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector in Ladakh since 2020 had “eroded strategic trust and the public and political basis of the relationship” between the two countries.
In a statement Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said Doval conveyed his concerns while discussing bilateral ties on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs’ Meeting in South Africa’s Johannesburg.
When he met Wang on the margins of a meeting of the NSAs of the Brics (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) grouping in Johannesburg late on Monday, Doval conveyed India’s position, reported Hindustan Times.
The meeting between Doval and Wang came a little more than 10 days after external affairs minister S Jaishankar met Wang on the sidelines of Asean-related meetings in Jakarta on 14 July. Both discussed the border row, which has taken India-China relations to their lowest point in six decades.
India has insisted that ties cannot be normalised until peace and tranquility are restored in the Ladakh sector of the LAC.
“During the meeting, NSA conveyed that the situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the India-China boundary since 2020 had eroded strategic trust and the public and political basis of the relationship,” the external affairs ministry said in a readout of the meeting.
“NSA emphasised the importance of continuing efforts to fully resolve the situation and restore peace and tranquility in the border areas, to remove impediments to normalcy in bilateral relations,” the readout added.
Both China and India agreed that the India-China relationship is ‘significant not only for the two countries but also for the region and world’.
Though China did not comment immediately on the meeting between DOval and Wang since the start of the military standoff in the Ladakh sector in May 2020.
Post clash in Galwan Valley in June 2020, where 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were killed, the relations between China and India taken a toll.
Since 2020, China and India arrayed close to 50,000 troops each in the Ladakh sector of the LAC 2020. Though both have agreed to pull back frontline troops from both banks of Pangong Lake, Gogra, and Hot Springs, however, there has been no understanding of friction points at Depsang and Demchok.
Doval’s recent remarks during the meeting with Wang were a reiteration of this position, which rejected China’a claims. Doval is expected to hold separate meetings with several of his counterparts in Johannesburg.
