Military commanders of India and China will meet today for a ninth time for talks to defuse tension and find a solution to end the standoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. The talks will be held at Moldo, opposite Chushul sector in India. In the last round of talks, the Indian Army strongly insisted on early disengagement of troops by China from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh.
The talks are expected to start in the morning and focus on disengagement of troops, and drawdown of military hardware amassed along the LAC, Lt General PGK Menon, commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps that oversees the Ladakh sector, will lead the Indian delegation to talks today, The nearly nine-month-long military standoff has seen tension rise along the LAC. Some 50,000 Indian Army troops are currently deployed in a high state of combat readiness in mountainous locations in eastern Ladakh in sub-zero conditions, as multiple rounds of talks between the two sides have not yielded concrete outcome to resolve the standoff.
China has also deployed an equal number of troops, according to officials. India will not reduce the number of troops unless China initiates the process, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday, while expressing confidence of finding a solution to the row through talks. A representative of the Ministry of External Affairs will also be at the talks. MEA Joint Secretary (East Asia) Naveen Srivastava, leading the Indian side in meetings of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), has also been attending the military discussions,
The Defence Minister said India is developing infrastructure in border areas at a “very fast rate”, adding China has objected to some of the projects. “Reduction in the number of troops won’t happen. India won’t reduce troop deployment unless China initiates the process,” he told Times Now in an interview. According to a transcript of the interview issued by the channel, when asked about the dialogue process with China on the row, Mr Singh said, “There is no deadline when it comes to matter like the ongoing standoff. You can’t fix a date.”
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