Is it an illusion, or are we really seeing some kind of a light that is visible in the dreary tunnel of of Ladakh? The joint statement issued by the two countries following the Thursday (10 September) meeting between their respective Foreign Ministers, S Jaishankar and Wang Yi in Moscow, at the sidelines of an SCO meet, is being hailed as the ‘harbinger of peace’.
The language of the statement is anodyne, and dependent on a lot of ‘ifs’, but the very fact that a ‘joint’ statement was issued is a plus point: it’s the first good news in a week when it appeared that India and China were drifting towards an armed clash in the Pangong Tso area.
The joint statement encapsulated a five point agreement between the two sides to:
- Be guided by the consensus of the leaders (PM Modi and President XI) on developing relations and preventing differences to become disputes
- The need for the border forces to continue their dialogue, ‘quickly disengage’, and ease tensions
- Abide by the agreements and protocols on the Sino-Indian border issues to maintain peace and tranquility on the borders
- Continue the dialogue through the Special Representative mechanism, involving NSA Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, as well as the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on the India-China border issue at the Joint Secretary level
- To expedite and conclude new CBMs to maintain peace and tranquility