Fresh round of India-China talks to resolve border standoff fail

dpa New Delhi Talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders to disengage forces from friction points on their borders have broken down with both si...

dpa New DelhiTalks between Indian and Chinese military commanders to disengage forces from friction points on their borders have broken down with both sides blaming each other for the stalemate.The 13th round of military talks at the Moldo outpost on the Chinese side of Ladakh on Sunday covered three face-off points in the Himalayan region.“During the meeting, the Indian side ... made constructive suggestions for resolving the remaining areas but the Chinese side was not agreeable and also could not provide any forward-looking proposals. The meeting thus did not result in resolution of the remaining areas,” an Indian army statement said Monday.Beijing accused the Indian military of “unreasonable and unrealistic demands” and urged it not to “misjudge the situation”, state-run broadcaster CGTN reported, quoting a statement from senior Colonel Long Shaohua of the Western Theater Command.The nuclear-armed neighbours have been locked in a military stand-off in the eastern Ladakh region since May 2020 at several points along the line of actual control (LAC), an informal disputed border.There was an incident of hand-to-hand combat in June 2020 that resulted in casualties on both sides, the worst such confrontation in 45 years. This was followed by a large build-up of troops and artillery and several minor skirmishes.A 17-month stand-off has continued although troops pulled back from some face-off sites in recent months following talks.India and China have differing perceptions of what constitutes the LAC, which runs through disputed territory on their ill-defined 3,500-kilometre border, through largely uninhabited and inhospitable high mountain terrain. This has led to several small conflicts, and a fully fledged war in 1962.