Ties between India and China depend on “peace” on the border, India’s defense chief has told his Chinese counterpart, amid strained relations over their contested Himalayan border.
(Bloomberg) — Ties between India and China depend on “peace” on the border, India’s defense chief has told his Chinese counterpart, amid strained relations over their contested Himalayan border.
The border dispute “has eroded the entire basis of bilateral relations” India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said, after meeting China’s Li Shangfu late Thursday on the sidelines of the Shanghai Corporation Organization in New Delhi.
Li said he hoped their two militaries will work together to strengthen mutual trust and called for efforts to normalize border issue management and control, according to the Chinese defense ministry.
Li is the first Chinese defense minister to visit India since deadly clashes between their troops in the summer of 2020. The nuclear armed South Asian neighbors, who share a 3,488 Km (2,167 miles)-long disputed border, have been locked in their worst territory dispute in four decades since then.
At least 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in the 2020 skirmish, and both sides have moved thousands of soldiers, artillery guns, tanks and missiles close to the border.
Over the weekend India and China held an 18th Round of talks between military commanders to try to resolve the crisis along their contested Himalayan frontier. Progress in several rounds of diplomatic and military talks so far has only been incremental.
India is the current host of the eight member Chinese-founded Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which also includes Russia and Pakistan, a group intended to counter the US-led global system.
At the SCO, New Delhi is seeking more cooperation to counter terrorism in the region and on military medicine, humanitarian and disaster relief, among the member countries.
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