General Li Shangfu, China’s defence minister, was scheduled to travel to India this week to attend the SCO defence ministers’ meeting beginning on April 27. While there, he is expected to meet with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh to discuss resolving the protracted standoff in eastern Ladakh, which has severely strained bilateral relations.
Gen. Li, who is considered as a personal friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping, is visiting India at a critical time given the tense stalemate that has existed between the Indian and Chinese soldiers in eastern Ladakh since May 2020.
The Council of Defence Ministers of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will meet in New Delhi, India, from April 27 to 28, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of National Defence (MND). This is at General Li Shangfu’s invitation.
General Li will speak at the conference and meet with the leaders of delegations from pertinent nations to discuss and share ideas on problems pertaining to the global and regional situation as well as defence and security cooperation, according to the announcement.
Gen. Li and Defence Minister Singh are anticipated to meet in private and chat about the development of the military and diplomatic negotiations to end the protracted impasse.
The 18th edition of the China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting, which took place at the Chushul-Moldo border crossing on the Chinese side on April 23, received favourable press from the Chinese defence ministry before to Gen. Li’s arrival.
In addition to preserving calm in the border regions, it was said that both parties had agreed to “speed up” the resolution of “relevant issues” connected to the protracted impasse in eastern Ladakh.
The Defence Ministry released a statement claiming that the two parties engaged in a cordial and open discussion on pertinent subjects.
“Both sides agreed to maintain close contact and dialogue through military and diplomatic channels, expedite the resolution of pertinent disputes on the western section of the China-India boundary, and continue to safeguard the peace and tranquilly in the border areas,” the statement said, citing the outcomes of the meeting between the two foreign ministers.
Mao Ning, a spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, told the media on Monday in Beijing that the two parties had a thorough discussion on how to quickly resolve pertinent problems.
According to Ning, “the two sides held an in-depth exchange of views on accelerating the resolution of pertinent issues, in line with the important common understanding of the leaders of both countries.”
The settlement of the “relevant” problems along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western sector was the subject of a “frank and in-depth” conversation between the two parties, according to a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday.
The MEA said that the parties “agreed to maintain close communication and dialogue through military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the outstanding issues as soon as possible.”
On March 2, outside of a G20 summit in New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke with his Chinese colleague Qin Gang. Jaishankar told Qin during the discussions that the current status of ties between China and India is “abnormal”.
The most recent round of negotiations between the top Army commanders of the two parties took place four months ago on Sunday.
In September of last year, the two sides disengaged from Patrolling Point 15 in the Gogra-Hotsprings region in accordance with an agreement made during the 16th round of military negotiations.
To settle the conflict over eastern Ladakh, discussions at the Corps Commander level were started. Following a bloody altercation at Pangong Lake on May 5, 2020, the eastern Ladakh border standoff broke out.
Following a severe skirmish in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, which was the biggest important military confrontation between the two sides in decades, relations between the two nations dramatically deteriorated.
The two sides have finished the disengagement procedure on the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake as well as in the Gogra region as a result of several military and diplomatic discussions.
The state-run Global Times daily said in an editorial that the China-India relationship is vast and rich, and that it shouldn’t be bound or limited by boundary disputes.
“Eastern knowledge may provide the answers to issues that Westerners see as difficult. We anticipate China and India setting an example,” the statement said.
Veteran of the military aerospace field General Li previously held the position of deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Strategic Support Force, which was in charge of the nation’s missile systems. From 2017 to 2022, General Li served as head of the equipment development department of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the high command of the Chinese military.
The US government imposed sanctions on Gen Li and the Equipment Development Department in 2018 as a result of transactions in which China bought equipment linked to the S-400 surface-to-air missile system and the Su-35 combat aircraft from Russia.
