‘Indian, Chinese armies identify phased de-escalation as priority’

Indian and Chinese armies emphasised the need for an "expeditious, phased and step wise" de-escalation as a "priority" to end the sevenweek bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh, during a nearly 12-hour corps commander-level meeting on Tuesday, government sources said.

This, the sources said, is in sync with the agreement between External Affairs Ministers Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in their telephonic talks on June 17 that the overall situation would be handled in a responsible manner.

At Tuesday's dialogue, the two sides also resolved to sincerely implement the disengagement understanding reached in the first corps commander-level talks on June 6, they said. The talks took place on the Indian side of the LAC in Chushul sector in eastern Ladakh. The meeting began at 11 AM and continued for nearly 12 hours, the sources said.

The Indian delegation at the meeting was headed by 14

Corps Commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh while the Chinese side was led by the Commander of the Tibet Military District Major General Liu Lin.

It was the third senior military commander level engagement to discuss issues related to disengagement at the faceoff sites along the LAC and de-escalation from the border areas.

The Army has sent thousands of additional troops to forward locations along the border in the last two weeks. The IAF has also moved air defence systems as well as a sizeable number of its frontline combat jets and attack helicopters to several key air bases.

Meanwhile, People's Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed over 20,000 of its troops along Line of Actual Control (LAC) near Eastern Ladakh sector even as India is closely watching the activities of another 10,000-12,000 Chinese troops deployed in Xinjiang with high mobility vehicles and weaponry in rear positions with the capability to reach the Indian front in 48 hours time.