NEW DELHI: Military de-escalation in Pangong Tso, Depsang and other areas of eastern Ladakh is still some distance away, with India and China yet to fully agree on modalities and time-lines for the stepwise process that should eventually also lead to de-induction of massive troop and weapon deployment along the unresolved border by the two sides.
“Detailed proposals, options and concerns” on troop disengagement and then de-escalation were discussed threadbare in the marathon meeting led by 14 Corps commander Lt General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin.
The intensity of the complicated hard-nosed negotiations, compounded by the huge “trust deficit” after the June 15 bloody skirmishes, can be gauged from the fact that the meeting that began in Chushul at 11.30 am on Tuesday finally ended at 2 am on Wednesday.
The two sides took back each other’s proposals to their politico-military hierarchies for a review and authorisation to finalise a roadmap for phase-II of the proposed de-escalation plan after concrete disengagement is first achiev