Indian and Chinese commanders meet as tensions remain high after deadly clash
- Senior military figures hold second round of talks following fatal skirmish earlier this month
- Incident has inflamed nationalist sentiment on both sides, with India banning popular Chinese apps including TikTok in its wake
Chinese and Indian commanders have met on the Indian side of their disputed frontier for their second round of talks after a deadly clash earlier this month between the two sides.
Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of the Indian Army’s 14 Corps, and Major Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region, met on Tuesday as both sides continued to mass troops on either side of the line.
Tuesday’s meeting at the Indian-controlled Chushul outpost, near Pangong Tso lake, followed an 11-hour meeting on June 22 on the Chinese side, where the two agreed to try to ease tensions inflamed by a deadly clash on June 15. The two sides had previously met just over a week before the fatal skirmish, again on the Chinese side.
At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed and the Chinese suffered an unspecified number of casualties during the incident in the Galwan Valley.
The two countries have a long-running border dispute and even the Line of Actual Control that separates the territory held by each side is undefined, raising the risk of flashpoints.
The incident has fired nationalist sentiment in both countries, which may make it harder to reach a settlement.
Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said Tuesday’s talks were held slightly earlier than expected, which suggested that last week’s meeting did not end on a positive note.
“The political leadership is not cooling down, and not much has happened in terms of disengagement. Instead, there’s been a massive mobilisation on both sides,” he said.
