Commenting on the 11th round of military border talks, the CCP-owned Global Times (April 11) observed that "unlike the previous rounds of meetings, Chinese experts pointed out on Sunday, noting that no joint statements were issued, and the statement from China was issued by the PLA Western Theater Command instead of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense, which are signs that solving the remaining issues will be challenging for both sides. It quoted Senior Colonel Long Shaohua, spokesperson of the PLA Western Theater Command, as saying "We hope India can treasure the current positive situation of de-escalation in China-India border regions, abide by related agreements reached by the two countries and the two militaries in previous meetings, meet China halfway and safeguard peace and stability in border regions together." The Global Times said "from the 6th round of meeting in September 2020, China and India had all released joint statements, but this time no joint statement was released". Qian Feng, Director of the Research Department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, was quoted by Global Times as saying on April 11 that "Chinese and Indian border defense troops have seen confrontations in border regions in spring and summer in recent years, and as the temperature picks up and troops are still not disengaged in other regions, the momentum of de-escalation could be impacted, Qian said, noting that some Indians have a delusion of colluding with the US, particularly with the US military, over the border dispute and playing "smart" despite reaching agreements, and this kind of move could damage the restoration of military trust between China and India".
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