India, China hold 3rd Lt Gen talks

THIS WAS THE THIRD MEETING BETWEEN THE DELEGATIONS LED BY LT GEN HARINDER SINGH OF THE LEH-BASED 14 CORPS, AND MAJ GEN

LIU LIN OF THE SOUTH XINJIANG REGION

NEWDELHI: Senior Indian and Chinese commanders on Tuesday held an hours-long meeting at Chushul in Ladakh as part of ongoing efforts at the military level to cool heightened border tensions that have soured bilateral ties between the two neighbours, even as the military build-up on both sides of the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) continues unabated, people familiar with developments said on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity.

The talks between the army delegations, led by corps commander-ranked officers, began at around 11 am and were still on till the time of filing of this report. There was no official word from the army on the talks. A breakthrough is unlikely at this stage but talks will go on, said one of the persons cited above.

This was the third meeting between the delegations led by

Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of the Lehbased 14 Corps, and Major General Liu Lin, commander of the South Xinjiang military region; and the second after the brutal clash at Galwan Valley that left 20 Indian and an unconfirmed number of Chinese soldiers dead. The Galwan Valley clash, which took place while a previous disengagement process was on, has created trust deficit between the two sides, said a second person.