Ladakh row: 10th round of India-China military talks lasted 16 hours

www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi, Feb 21, 2021: The 10th round of commander level military talks between India and China held on February 20 lasted for 16 hours, Army sources told ANI.

The talks ended at Moldo on the Chinese side of LAC around 2 am today. Main points of discussion were disengagement from friction points including Gogra heights, Hot Springs and Depsang plains.

In earlier talks, India is learnt to have insisted on a faster disengagement process in these areas to bring down tension in the region that has witnessed a standoff between the two militaries for over nine months.

On February 11, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced in Parliament that India and China reached an agreement on disengagement in the North and South banks of Pangong lake that mandates both sides to "cease" forward deployment of troops in a " phased, coordinated and verifiable" manner.
Under the agreement, he said, China will pull back its troops to the east of Finger 8 areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake while the Indian personnel will be based at their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa Post near Finger 3 in the region.

In the nine rounds of military talks, India had specifically insisted on the withdrawal of Chinese troops from Finger 4 to Finger 8 on the North bank of Pangong Lake. The mountain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers.

On its part, the Chinese side was insisting on the withdrawal of Indian troops from several strategic peaks on the southern bank of the lake.

Around five months back, Indian troops occupied these strategic heights in the Mukhpari, Rechin La and Magar hill areas around the southern bank after the Chinese PLA attempted to intimidate them in the areas.