India-China LAC: Will Xi Jinping Ease Tensions In The Run-up To The SCO Summit?

New Delhi: On ‘Talking Point‘, Dr Geeta Kochhar, Assistant Professor, Centre for Chinese and South East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), Founder & Host, ‘Nation-State Dialogue‘ and Dr M.S. Prathibha, Associate Fellow, East Asia Centre, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses(MP-IDSA) in conversation with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi. The panel discusses the bilateral meeting between External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar and China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO) Foreign Ministers’ meet in Goa, two months after the two also held talks during the G20 meeting, and shortly after the Defence Ministers talked during their SCO meeting in Delhi, whether China is indicating it could ease tensions in the run-up to the July 3-4 SCO Summit, how India is dealing with the ‘mistrust’ and the ‘yawning gap’ between the two sides, India insisting that the situation is ‘abnormal’ and normalcy can only be restored after China disengages military forces from the remaining friction areas on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), China’s recent statements that the border issue is ‘generally stable’ and India should put it in an ‘appropriate position’ and promote the transition to ‘normalised border management and control’, Xi Jinping being expected to attend the SCO Summit in Delhi, the Indian Army’s April ‘Buland Bharat’ integrated surveillance and firepower training exercise to test “simulated war conditions in high altitude areas” at the Mandala High Altitude Firing Ranges in Arunachal Pradesh, Qin Gang’s visits to Myanmar and post the SCO Goa meet to Pakistan for a bilateral with Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and a trilateral with Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, India-Russia, Russia-China, India-U.S. relations, the Quad, Indo-Pacific and Taiwan.