The marathon 16-hour-long meeting between Indian and Chinese military commanders ended on the wee hours of Monday but 'without any significant outcome'. Both sides, however, agreed to have next round of talks soon to make any move on the disengagement process.
India and China have held multiple rounds of military and diplomatic level talks to break the nine-month-long deadlock between the two armies. With hardly any improvement on the disengagement process, these talks could only prevent Galwan type violent clash. Tension continues on the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border between India and China, as thousands of troops are deployed in the forward locations in Eastern Ladakh under freezing minus 30 degree Celsius.
A minor clash happened between the two sides in north Sikkim last week. But it was resolved with due protocol.
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It was the ninth round of meeting between the two sides, which began at 10.30 am on Sunday at the Moldo meeting point of the Chinese side.
"The two sides agreed that this round of meeting was positive, practical and constructive, which further enhanced mutual trust and understanding," said a joint statement by the Ministry of Defence. It added that the two sides "agreed to push for an early disengagement of the frontline troops".
According to the joint statement, both sides also agreed to follow the important consensus of their state leaders, maintain the good momentum of dialogue and negotiation, and hold the 10th round of the Corps Commander Level Meeting at an early date to jointly advance de-escalation.
The Indian side was led by Leh-based 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen P.G.K Menon. Naveen Srivastava, joint secretary (East Asia) from the external affairs ministry, was also part of the negotiating team.
"The two sides agreed to continue their effective efforts in ensuring the restraint of the frontline troops, stabilize and control the situation along the LAC in the Western Sector of the China-India border, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility," the statement further said.
According to a top official, the Indian side conveyed to the Chinese side, which was led by South Xinjiang military district chief Major General Liu Lin, to first pull back from friction points, as its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the aggressor in the entire episode.
During the meeting, the Indian side also took up the issue of additional deployment of Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh against the agreed point that both sides will not further increase strength of their frontline troops.
During the sixth round of talks in September last year, the two sides had "agreed to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen communication on the ground, avoid misunderstandings and misjudgements, stop sending more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation on the ground, and avoid taking any actions that may complicate the situation". However, after Chinese additional reinforcement, Indian side had to do the mirror deployment to counter any misadventure by the PLA.
"Yesterday's talk happened after two months of stalemate. Though the process of disengagement is yet to take off, several key issues were discussed in the meeting," an official based in South Block said, adding that the pull back may not be possible during winters as all passes are already closed.
