NEW DELHI: The Corps Commanders of India and China are holding the 18th round of talks on bringing down the tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh on Sunday. The talks are amidst tensions prevailing due to the heavy deployment of troops on both sides of the LAC in Eastern Ladakh.
The sources confirmed that the talks are being held at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point in Eastern Ladakh and “they are continuing”, added the sources.
The Talks from the Indian side are being led by Lt Gen Rashim Bali, the Leh-based Fire and Fury Corps Commander. The defence of Eastern Ladakh is looked after by the Fire and Fury Corps. The Chinese side is led by the South Xinjiang Military District Commander.
The situation along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh has remained tense since May 2020 as the troops of the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army clashed with the Indian Army soldiers at Finger 4 on the Northern Bank of the Pangong Lake.
Post the clashes China deployed its troops in the areas of North Bank and South Bank of Pangong Tso, Gogra, Hot Spring and Depsang leading to a standoff between the two sides. This was in addition to the standoff existing at Depsang and Demchok.
This meeting is taking place after a gap of four months as the meeting between the two sides at the Corps Commander level was held in December last year.
India has been asking for status-quo ante to the April 2020 position on the ground in Eastern Ladakh and has asked China to move its troops back from the Depsang Plains and Demchok area.
The 17 rounds of previous Corps Commanders talks have led to disengagement at Galwan (Patrolling Point 14), North and South banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP 17A) and HotSprings (PP 15). In addition, there have been multiple diplomatic parlays between the two countries.
The troops have moved back from the earlier eye-to-eye deployment from the standoff points to new locations but they remain in the area.
After the 2020 Ladakh stand-off, India and China currently maintain a combined deployment of over 1 lakh soldiers along with a massive presence of tanks and artillery.
Meanwhile, the troops have clashed twice which led to the death of soldiers from both sides in Galwan in June 2020 and the personnel were injured in the Eastern Sector as they clashed in December 2022 in the Yangtze area, Arunachal Pradesh.
Both sides have been agreeing to continue holding talks through military and diplomatic channels and work out a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues.
Further, Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu is scheduled to be in India for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meetings next week in the national capital. The meeting is scheduled to be held on April 27 and 28.
This will be the first visit of Li Shangfu as he was appointed as China’s new Defence Minister in March.
Summarising the situation in Eastern Ladakh, General Manoj Pande had called it stable but unpredictable last month. “We have enough reserve to deal with any contingency, " the Chief had added.
While India has maintained its stand that the PLA troops should move to the status quo ante, there are multiple traditional Patrolling Points which Indian troops are unable to access. There are 65 PPs (Patrolling Points) in Eastern Ladakh with the first one close to Karakoram Pass and the last towards Demchok (some PPs have sub-points as well).
There persists an on-ground trust deficit between the two sides. While the Chinese have been improving their military infrastructures on their side, Indi has been actively working on improving its border connectivity, for both military and civilians.
There has been a precautionary deployment all along the LAC since May 2020.
The technical term for Corps Commanders Talks is Senior Highest Military Commander Level (SHMCL); so far there have been 16 rounds of talks; Post-Galwan, talks took place for the first time on June 6, 2020. Else, matters were resolved at the Higher Commander Level (Major General) meetings.
The 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) is divided into the eastern sector (Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim), the central sector (Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh) and the western sector (Ladakh). The average height ranges from 10,000 ft at Arunachal Pradesh to over 18,700 ft at Karakoram Pass.