Chill in ties: Disengage first, Rajnath tells China after he refuses to shake hands with counterpart

India has made it categorically clear that unless troops are withdrawn by the Chinese along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, there would be no improvement in bilateral ties.

Defence Minister, Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart, General Li Shangfu that the violations by the People's Liberation Army had eroded the entire basis of the bilateral relations. The disengagement needs to be logically followed by de-escalation, Singh said in his 55-minute meeting with General Li Shangfu.

The chill in the relations was evident when Singh did not shake hands with General Li.

Reports said that the Chinese side presented a new proposal to re-start military-to-military cooperation just before the bilateral. However it was rejected with the message that it can be only considered if the situation at the border returns to normal.

India has been demanding the disengagement, de-escalation and de-induction of the over 50,000 troops each deployed by the two sides along the LAC. "India can consider the proposal only after the border issue is resolved. India wants relations with China improved, but that can happen only after peace and tranquility is restored at the border," India told China.

The visit by the Chinese defence minister is the first since the People's Liberation Army made several intrusions into eastern Ladakh in April 2020. This had also led to the bloody clash at Galwan Valley in June during the same year, following which the bilateral ties nosedived.

The meeting also comes in the wake of the 18th round of corps commander-level talks that was held on the Chinese side of Chushul-Moldo last Sunday. The talks did not yield any concrete results.

China is yet to disengage at the Depsang Plains as well as the Charding Ninglung Nallah (CNN) track junction at Demchok in eastern Ladakh. On the other hand, the Chinese have upped the ante along the Sikkim-Arunachal frontier. This had led to a clash between the two sides at the Tawang sector.