NEW DELHI: India’s Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said on Friday he was confident the ongoing border stand-off with China could be resolved through talks, even as thousands of troops remained amassed along a disputed Western Himalayan region.

Also on Friday, sources said the defence ministers of the two countries were expected to meet in Moscow very soon to discuss the matter.

“We are sure that the problem can be resolved fully through talks,” Gen Naravane said during a visit to the Ladakh region, where troops from the two countries have been squaring off for months.

“The situation along the LAC (Line of Actual Control) is slightly tense,” he said, adding that India had deployed additional troops in some areas to stall “any attempted Chinese incursions”.

China, however, has accused India of trespassing the LAC late last month, saying the “move has grossly violated China’s territorial sovereignty,” according to a Chinese embassy spokesperson in New Delhi.

But both countries have repeatedly reiterated that they are keen on talks to resolve the process, with military officials meeting for several days this week south of Ladakh’s Pangong Tso lake, where the latest flare-up occurred over the weekend.

Indian and Chinese media on Friday reported a possible meeting between the defence ministers of both countries in Moscow, where they are attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation gathering.

“Based on what I know, this arrangement between the two sides has made progress. The meeting between Wei Fenghe and Rajnath Singh has a big probability to be held,” Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times newspaper said on Twitter, naming the two defence ministers.

A spokesman for India’s defence ministry said he had no information on a likely meeting, which would be the first face-to-face talks between senior Indian and Chinese officials since the stand-off intensified after a clash between troops in June.

Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in brutal hand-to-hand fighting in Ladakh’s Galwan valley on June 15, with the Chinese side also suffering an undisclosed number of casualties.

The Indian defence minister was given a clearance to meet his Chinese counterpart, an Indian government official said. The request for the meeting came from the Chinese side, the official added.

“Subsequently a green signal was given for the meeting,” the official said, asking not to be identified because of Indian service rules.

There was no official word from China.

Military commanders and diplomats have been holding talks to end the stand-off on the LAC but there has been little progress.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2020