India wants both armies to return to ‘regular’LAC posts

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) indirectly ruled out a military option to resolve the border issue with China, saying that the government was working on moving back troops to their “regular posts” on their respective sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“It is important to bear in mind that achieving this (complete disengagement) requires agreed actions by both sides,” said the MEA spokesperson in this respect. “It is natural that this can be done only through mutually agreed reciprocal actions,” said MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.

China’s latest homily about the “big picture” came from its Ministry of Defence. Exactly a week back, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s readout on Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) had asked both sides to “jointly uphold the big picture of bilateral relations”, which was also stated by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on August 17.

Answering questions on China at the weekly media briefing, Srivastava especially referred to a recent interview of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar where he spoke of various past border incidents and noted that what was common was that “all border situations were resolved through diplomacy”.

The MEA spokesperson’s accent on talks to resolve border irritations comes a few days after Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat had said India had “military options” to deal with Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh if talks at military and diplomatic levels continue to be stalemated.

The MEA also pointed out that Jaishankar had said that a solution “must be predicated on honouring all agreements and understandings” and attempt must not be made to “alter the status quo unilaterally”.

The last meeting of the WMCC held on August 20 had seen New Delhi forcefully putting across the formulations expressed by Jaishankar.

Daily Tribune:  28th August, 2020