NEW DELHI (INDIA) – Indian and Chinese military commanders held a second round of discussions to ease tensions on their contested border on Monday as the public mood hardened in India for a military and economic riposte to China following the worst clash in over five decades.
According to an Indian government source, corps commanders from both sides met in Moldo, on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border dividing India’s Ladakh region from the Chinese held Aksai Chin in the western Himalayas.
Earlier on Thursday, lower ranking officers held the first round of talks after the skirmish on June 15, when soldiers fought with rocks, metal rods and wooden clubs.
Blaming each other for the bloodshed, the two governments have sought to avoid any escalation of tension that could risk further conflict between the two nuclear armed states.
Furious over the death of Indian troops, citizens have been calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nationalist government to show India will not be bullied, bitterly remembering how China humiliated their country in a war in 1962.
Members of an Indian traders torched a pile of Chinese goods at a New Delhi market, pushing for a nationwide boycott of products from its northern neighbour.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which represents some 70 million traders, has asked federal and state governments to support a boycott of Chinese goods and revoke contracts awarded to Chinese companies.
“The entire nation is filled with extreme anger and intensity to give a strong befitting response to China not only militarily but also economically,” CAIT National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal wrote in a letter to chief ministers of some Indian states.
China is India’s second-biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth $87 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2019, and a trade deficit of $53.57 billion in China’s favour.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field