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India, China hold another round of talks over border issue

India, China on Monday ended their standoff in Doklam by withdrawing their troops from the area, just days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China to attend the BRICS summit. Photo: AFP

1 min read . Updated: 15 Jun 2020, 06:33 PM IST Elizabeth Roche

The talks at the level of brigade commanders and others have been continuing on almost a daily basis since 6 June
The immediate cause of the face-off has been China’s stiff opposition to India laying a key road around the Pangong Tso Lake

NEW DELHI : India and China h another round of talks at the level of brigadiers and colonels on Monday to resolve tensions along their common undemarcated border, two people familiar with the matter said.

The talks at the level of brigade commanders and others have been continuing on almost a daily basis since 6 June when two senior military officers of India and China met in Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to defuse tensions sparked last month, one of the two people cited above said.

The partial disengagement that was announced last week was also continuing, the person cited above said. These were from two points in the Galwan Valley and a third which is known as Hot Springs. A pullback from Pangong Tso Lake is expected to take some more time because the situation there is slightly more complicated. This may happen after a second meeting of senior commanders, the person said.

The immediate cause of the face-off has been China’s stiff opposition to India laying a key road around the Pangong Tso Lake, besides building another link road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley to the Line of Actual Control.

The two sides were to hold talks over 10 days starting on Wednesday to defuse tensions and pull back troops further. These talks were to happen at the level of major generals, brigadiers and colonels. One round of talks – at the level of major generals -- took place on Wednesday on the Indian side of the LAC. A second round of talks again at the level of major generals took place on Friday. No details of the talks held so far were known including the round held on Monday.

Meanwhile, Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar was expected to join his Chinese and Russian counterparts via video link at a Russia-India-China trilateral conference on 22 June. The meeting, being convened at the initiative of Russia, is expected to deliberate on a range of key issues like ways to collectively tackle the coronavirus pandemic and address common security threats, a third person familiar with the matter said.

The trilateral meeting was to be held in March, but had to be postponed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.