India-China Dialogue On Easing LAC Tensions Today

India and China are set to hold a key meeting of officers of the rank of lieutenant general on Saturday, in an attempt to defuse tensions brewing over the Line of Actual Control (LAC) over the past few weeks. Both countries have been in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation in the eastern Ladakh sector for five weeks now.

India is being represented at the meeting by Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh who will meet his Chinese counterpart. A meeting between Corps Commanders of such a senior rank is reported to be unprecedented.

Defence analysts believe that this is only the first of such meetings and since neither officer is empowered to take an on-the-spot decision, more interaction will take place between the two sides.

India and China are locked in a bitter stand-off in Eastern Ladakh, the most serious since the Doklam crisis in 2017.

China has objected to roads and bridges being built on the Indian side of the border. Indian experts point out that China has consistently been strengthening border infrastructure all through, while objecting to any activity on the Indian side.

Defence analysts say that while India has only been trying to maintain status quo by strengthening its infrastructure, China has been attempting to alter the status quo through its consistent activities on the LAC.

India shares a porous border which is about 4000 km long with China. This time around however the flare-up has been in the Eastern Ladakh sector where Chinese troops are said to have moved aggressively in three places.

The troop level face-off has been going on for more than a month now and has led to a scuffle between soldiers on both sides near the Pangong Lake in Ladakh in early May. India complained that Chinese troops were hindering regular border patrolling in the area.

Today's meeting between the Corps Commanders of the two armies will mark the first step in the direction of resolution of the LAC situation, which has seen a stand-off with neither side willing to back off.