The Ladakh standoff: India, China Armies hold high-level talks

New Delhi: Indian and Chinese Armies on Saturday held Lieutenant General-level talks in their first major attempt to resolve the month-long border standoff in eastern Ladakh, official sources said.

The Indian delegation was led by Lt General Harinder Singh, the general officer commanding of Leh-based 14 Corps, while the Chinese side was headed by the Commander of the Tibet Military District, the sources said.

The Chinese delegation to the meeting was led by Maj Gen Lin Liu, the commander of the South Xinjiang Military District.

Without specifically mentioning the talks, an Indian Army spokesperson said: "Indian and Chinese officials continue to remain engaged through the established military and diplomatic channels to address the current situation in the India-China border areas."

Saturday's meeting took place after 12 rounds of talks between local commanders of the two armies and three rounds of discussions at the level of major general-rank officials could not produce any tangible outcome, the sources said.

The final outcome of the meeting, which started 11.30 am and lasted until the evening, was not immediately known as the team was yet to arrive back at Leh from the meeting point at Chushul-Moldo, on the Chinese side of the border.

"There were certain issues that India wanted to raise during the meeting. The foremost being that status quo as of April needs to be maintained by China, which means they need to pull back from areas of troop build-up as well as the transgression points," the source said.

The high-level military dialogue took place a day after the two countries held diplomatic talks during which both sides agreed to handle their "differences" through peaceful discussions while respecting each other's sensitivities and concerns.

After the standoff began early last month, Indian military leadership decided that Indian troops will adopt a firm approach in dealing with the aggressive posturing by the Chinese troops in all disputed areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie.

The Chinese army is learnt to have deployed around 2,500 troops in Pangong Tso and Galwan Valley besides gradually enhancing temporary infrastructure and weaponry.

The sources said satellite images have captured significant ramping up of defence infrastructure by China on its side of the LAC, the de-facto border, including upgrading a military airbase around 180 km from the Pangong Tso area.