NEW DELHI: India will keep a close watch and carefully verify over the next 10 days whether Chinese soldiers pull back further for concrete “disengagement” between the rival troops in eastern Ladakh before discussing “de-escalation” at the next corps commander-level meeting.
The fifth round of talks between 14 Corps commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Maj Gen Liu Lin will be held after the “partial disengagement” at Pangong Tso and Gogra-Hot Springs, under way since the beginning of this month, “hopefully” leads to a “complete disengagement”, top sources said.
“The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in the fourth round on July 14, indicated its willingness to move back further at Pangong Tso and Gogra-Hot Springs. But it’s consulting its politico-military hierarchy. We will have to wait to see how much it translates into actual action on the ground,” a source said.
This was reinforced by a rare official statement by the Indian Army on Thursday, which said India and China “remain committed to the objective of complete disengagement” but the stepwise process was “intricate” and would require “constant verification” at different