Pak-China FMs talks annoy India

ISLAMABAD: India is peeved about the dash of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to China and joint statement issued after the strategic talks of foreign ministers of the two countries.

“China has no locus standi in commenting on Jammu and Kashmir,” said New Delhi on Friday in its knee-jerk reaction to the outcome of talks between Pakistan and China’s foreign ministers.

In the backdrop, India has reported that a stalemate in the military talks between China and India on Ladakh imbroglio continues after inconclusive diplomatic talks. The Indian reaction is very interesting and its media has quoted that the foreign ministers of Pakistan and China had held their 2nd annual strategic dialogue during which they discussed ways to enhance their all-weather bilateral ties, the Kashmir issue, progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Afghan peace process.

Referring to the joint statement New Delhi has stated that India has been maintaining that China has no locus standi in commenting on Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi has previously told Beijing that the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir “has been, is and shall continue to be an integral part of India.”

Earlier this month, the Indian ministry of external affairs said the issues pertaining to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir were solely an internal matter of India.

“As on such previous occasions, this attempt too met with little support from the international community. We firmly reject China’s interference in our internal affairs and urge it to draw proper conclusions from such infructuous attempts,” the Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in a statement in New Delhi after China initiated a discussion in the UN Security Council on Jammu and Kashmir.

Ahead of the meeting between Wang and Qureshi, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian told the media in Beijing that “this time the strategic dialogue is highly relevant and the two sides will take the opportunity to discuss anti-epidemic cooperation, bilateral ties and the regional and international issues of mutual interest”.

India had protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Beijing and Islamabad, both have outrightly rejected Indian contention with contempt that the observations deserved.

Meanwhile, in a separate development Indian Army is strongly insisting that the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) must restore status quo ante of April this year to resolve the over three-month-old border standoff in Ladakh.

The Chinese military is not serious about resolution of the border standoff in eastern Ladakh and it is faced with an “unanticipated” consequence for its “misadventure” due to a strong response by the Indian Army, government sources said on Friday. The Indian Army has told the PLA that “shifting” of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is not acceptable to it, the sources said, adding the Chinese military is now contemplating to give “ex post facto strategic meaning” to its actions in eastern Ladakh.

Another Indian source claimed that the Chinese side is resorting to a strategy of “back and forth” and not showing any interest in finding a solution to the border standoff. China and India have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks in the last two-and-half months, but no significant headway has been made for a resolution to the border row in eastern Ladakh.

The two sides held another round of diplomatic talks following which Indian ministry of external affairs said they had agreed to resolve outstanding issues in an “expeditious manner” and in accordance with the existing agreements and protocols. However, sources said the meeting could not produce any significant outcome. In the five rounds of Corps commander-level talks, the Indian side has been insisting on complete disengagement of Chinese troops at the earliest, and immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to April.

The Indian army is also in the process of procuring a number of weapons, ammunition and winter gears for the frontline troops, they added. The temperature in some of the high-altitude areas along the LAC drops to minus 25 degree Celsius in the winter months.

Tension between the two sides escalated manifold after the violent clashes in Galwan Valley on June 15 in which 20 Indian Army personnel were killed. The Indian army sent thousands of additional troops to forward locations along the border following the deadly clashes. The Indian Airforce (IAF) has also moved air defence systems as well as a sizeable number of its frontline combat jets and attack helicopters to several key air bases.