An aerial view of Leh city amid border tension with China (PTI photo)
NEW DELHI: India and China have broadly agreed to restart the gradual and verifiable troop disengagement from ‘friction points’ in Galwan Valley and Gogra-Hot Springs areas of eastern Ladakh, which got derailed the last time after Chinese soldiers reneged on the pullback agreement, leading to the bloody clashes on June 15.
However, there has been no breakthrough as yet in defusing the major troop confrontation at Pangong Tso, where PLA soldiers have built a large number of fortifications as well as taken the dominating heights after occupying the ‘Finger-4 to 8 area’ (mountainous spurs separated by 8-km distance) on the north bank of the lake since early May.
Official sources on Wednesday said “both sides emphasised the need for an expeditious, phased and step-wise de-escalation as a priority” during the 12-hour marathon meeting between 14 Corps commander Lt-General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin at Chushul on Tuesday. This was the third such meeting since June 6.
It will, however, be a long-drawn process, with a lot of finetuning yet to be done.