NEW DELHI: The breakthrough in India’s attempts to get Beijing to pull back its troops in Galwan Valley came after two hours of tense negotiations between national security advisor A K Doval and China’s state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi.
Sources said what the MEA described as a “frank and in-depth interaction” was marked by sharp exchanges before the two sides settled for an understanding which will require the PLA to reduce its presence, pull back and bring down the structures it had raised during the stand-off. Doval and Wang, who are special representatives for border talks, have known each other for some time and this helped them focus on the nub of the matter straightaway.
In the course of the conversation on Sunday, Doval bluntly put across New Delhi’s bottomline that for the de-escalation to happen, the PLA must move back from the area which Beijing had publicly claimed as its own in the aftermath of the violent confrontation between the two armies on June 15. India has said China violated the agreements intended to ensure peace on the b