Top generals’ meet at LAC today, MEA official will attend

◗ DURING THE MEETING, India will press for disengagement and a return of the status quo of April 2020 in eastern Ladakh. China could push India to vacate the strategic heights it occupied on the Kailash range.

The sixth round of corps commander- level talks between India and China will take place Monday morning at Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. For the first time, an external affairs ministry official, joint secretary ( East Asia) Naveen Srivastava, will be present at the meeting. A senior official from Army Headquarters will also attend it, as will the major generals operating in the Ladakh sector.

The Indian and Chinese foreign ministers had agreed at their meeting in Moscow recently to another round of corps commanders’ meeting to bring down tensions in Ladakh.

During the meeting, India will press for disengagement and a return of the status quo of April 2020 in eastern Ladakh. China could push India to vacate the strategic heights it occupied on the Kailash range which overlook the entry points of Spanggur Gap in the Chushul sector during the pre- emptive action on August 29- 31. The fifth and last meeting of the corps commanders was held on August 2 at Moldo.

However, things have changed since the last corps commanders’ meeting with at least three instances of firing reported at the LAC for the first time in 45 years. Of these, two were at the southern banks of Pangong Tso and one in the Finger area on its northern banks. The Indian Army has, however, officially acknowledged only one of these firing incidents, at Mukhpari in the Chushul sector on September 7.