Prologue continues......

India’s Ministry of External Affairs released a note on 28th April, giving the details of the meeting between the two leaders, including at Para 4, the military aspect of the border dispute. It said:

The two leaders expressed their support for the work of the Special Representatives on the India China Boundary Question and urged them to intensify their efforts to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement. The two leaders underscored the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility in all areas of the India-China border region in the larger interest of the overall development of bilateral relations. To this end, they issued strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication in order to build trust and mutual understanding and enhance predictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs. The two leaders further directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence building measures agreed upon between the two sides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthen existing institutional arrangements and information sharing mechanisms to prevent incidents in border regions.

All very well.

This informal summit of 2018 was followed by the ‘2nd India-China Informal Summit’ on 11th-12th October 2019 at Chennai, India, again by the two top leaders of both countries. As before, India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a detailed statement on 12th October, giving the 17 points discussed and agreed upon, which included the following paragraphs (Paragraphs h and 1h respectively):

h. They reiterated the consensus reached during the first Informal Summit in Wuhan, China in April 2018, that India and China are factors for stability in the current international landscape and that both side will prudently manage their differences and not allow differences on any issue to become disputes.

To be continued.......