Senior army commanders
of India and China on Monday held talks on implementing a five-point agreement
reached between the two countries on disengagement of troops and de-escalation
of the tense situation in eastern Ladakh, government sources said.
IMAGE: Military trucks are parked outside the
storage facilities at a supply depot in Leh, in the Ladakh region. Photograph:
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters
The sixth round of Corps
commander-level talks began at around 9 am in Moldo on the Chinese side of the
Line of Actual Control across India's Chushul sector in eastern Ladakh, they
said.
The Indian delegation is headed by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the commander of the
Leh-based 14 Corps of the Indian Army.
The team also included
a joint secretary-level officer from the ministry of external affairs and Lt.
Gen PGK Menon, who is expected to succeed Singh as the commander of the 14
Corps next month, the sources said. It is for the first time that a senior
official from the MEA was part of the high-level military talks aimed at
defusing the volatile situation in the mountainous region.
Maj Gen Liu Lin, the commander of the South Xinjiang military
region, is slated to lead the Chinese delegation.
"The meeting is underway," said a source.
The government sources said the agenda for the Monday talks
was to chart a specific timeline for implementation of the agreement reached
between the two countries at a meeting between External Affairs Minister S
Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of a Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation meet in Moscow on September 10.
The agreement aimed at ending the over four-month-long border
standoff included measures like quick disengagement of troops, avoiding action
that could escalate tensions, adherence to all agreements and protocols on
border management and steps to restore peace along the LAC.
Military sources, meanwhile, said the newly-inducted Rafale
jets started carrying out sorties in eastern Ladakh as part of measures to give
a boost to the overall combat readiness in view of the "provocative
actions" by Chinese troops in the last three weeks.
The deployment of French-made Rafale jets in Ladakh came less
than 10 days after they were formally inducted into the Indian Air Force.
At a ceremony in Ambala on September 10 where five Rafale
jets were inducted into the IAF, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said this was
crucial considering the atmosphere being created along the frontier and was
also a "big and stern" message to those eyeing India's sovereignty.
The sources said the army has made elaborate arrangements to
maintain the current level of troops and weapons in all forward areas in
eastern Ladakh and other sensitive high-altitude sectors in the harsh winter
months when the temperature drops up to minus 25 degree Celsius.
They said the situation remained tense at both the southern
and northern bank of the Pangong lake area as well as in other friction points.
There have been at least three attempts by the Chinese
People's Liberation Army to "intimidate" Indian troops along the
northern and southern bank of Pangong lake area in the last three weeks where
even shots were fired in the air for the first time at the LAC in 45 years.
The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after China
unsuccessfully attempted to occupy Indian territory in the southern bank of
Pangong Lake on the intervening night of August 29 and 30.
On September 7, the Chinese troops again made an unsuccessful
bid to close in on the Indian position and even fired shots in the air in the
Mukhpari area of Rezang-La ridgeline on the southern bank of Pangong lake.
As Jaishankar and Wang were set to hold talks in Moscow,
Chinese soldiers fired a barrage of "warning shots" in the air on the
North Bank of Pangong lake to "intimidate" the Indian troops, Indian
Army sources had said.
India occupied a number of strategic heights on the southern
bank of Pangong lake and strengthened its presence in Finger 2 and Finger 3
areas in the region to thwart any Chinese actions.
China has been
occupying the areas between Finger 4 and Finger 8. The mountain spurs in the
area are called Fingers.
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