The military-level talks between India and China resumed on Monday after six weeks to defuse the tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with both sides reaffirming the need for early disengagement and de-escalation.
India made it clear that pullback has to be from all the friction points in Ladakh, while the Chinese wanted the Indian Army to first vacate the heights on the south bank of the Pangong Tso (lake). The last round of parleys was held on August 2.
The Indian delegation was directed to insist that China has to make the first move of disengagement and New Delhi will then respond positively reducing its troop strength, sources said.
Given the complex and sensitive nature of the issue against the backdrop of the volatile situation at the border for the last four months, the two delegations decided to continue the dialogue. They also agreed to follow the five-point roadmap laid down by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. They had held a bilateral meeting on the LAC on September 10 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) in Moscow.
With these guidelines etched at the political level, the dialogue at the Moldo meeting point on the Chinese side in Chushul on Monday went a notch higher with diplomats also part of the Indian delegation. Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Minister Navin Srivastava, who heads the Working Mechanism for Co-orindation and Co-operation (WMCC) for India-China border issue, along with an Inspector General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) participated in the parleys.
The Indian team was led by Lt General Harinder Singh and two Major Generals. Lt General PG Menon also attended the crucial meeting. He is likely to replace Harinder Singh after his tenure as Leh-based 14 Corps ends in another couple of weeks.
The Indian strategy for the latest round of military-diplomatic level talks was cleared by the China Study Group (CSG) last week. It was made clear China has to refrain from its aggressive actions to unilaterally change the LAC.
The last round of Corps Commander talks between Harinder Singh and Major General Liu Lin was held on August 2. The two sides then agreed to mutually disengage but China later went back on its word and instead pumped in more troops at the friction point including the contentious Pangong Tso.
The last five rounds of military commander talks since June 5 discussed the modalities of withdrawal from the face-of sites and thinning out troops from the depth areas. Both the sides deployed additional troops and heavy weapons since the face offs commenced in mid-May and efforts were on to reduce the troops as a confidence building measure, sources said.
