Vinayak Barot
New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday tried to broker peace between India and China, saying “both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are ‘responsible’ leaders and are capable of solving the ongoing border issues between the two countries.”
“It was important that no ‘extra-regional power’ should interfere in the process, he said, and hoped that India and China reach a solution to the issue, Putin said in a statement.
The Sino-Indian relations nosedives in the summer of 2020 when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers ‘intruded’ in Eastern Ladakh and attacked their Indian counterparts, killing some and injuring many. This prompted New Delhi to scale down economic relations with Beijing, cut down on imports, and took other measures to deny Chinese companies a role in India’s developments.
President Putin said “Yes, I do know that there are some issues related to India-China relations but there are always a lot of issues between neighboring countries. I know the attitude of both the Prime Minister of India and also the President of China. These are very responsible people and they earnestly treat one another with the utmost respect and I believe that they will always arrive at a solution to any issue that they might face.”
“But it is important that no other extra-regional power is interfering with that,” the Russian President said.
China and India had been locked in a bitter border standoff from May last year till February this year when both sides concluded the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake after multiple military and diplomatic talks.
The two countries are now engaged in talks to take forward the disengagement process in the remaining friction points such as Hot Springs, Gogra, and Depsang in Eastern Ladakh.
Putin’s statement is being seen as Moscow’s attempt to strike a balance in its relations with New Delhi and Beijing, at a time India is inching closer to Europe and America on a range of issues, including containment of China.