India and China are meeting again at the commander level to resolve the 20-month crisis in East Ladakh. A senior official said in a statement that he was “skeptical” about the outcome of the talks.
Earlier, a commander-level meeting was held in October last year. At that meeting, India made several ‘constructive’ proposals. But no such proposal came from China. Not only that, after the meeting, China issued a formal notification saying that India’s demand was ‘unreasonable’. Therefore, the official said, there are still doubts about the effectiveness of the re-commander level meeting. However, he hopes that a positive role from China can be expected this time.
Both India and China continue to work on infrastructure development along the LoC. China is working to build roads and runways for aircraft. According to the official, about 70,000 well-armed soldiers from both countries spent two winter seasons at such a high altitude in eastern Ladakh because of the unrest. How many more winters they have to spend next, is uncertain now.
However, India does not want any third party to interfere in the negotiations. According to the high-ranking official, a friend of India wants to play the role of mediator. But India has rejected the proposal.
