India to take call on latest proposal from China for mutual withdrawal of troops from LAC

India will soon take a call on the new set of proposals it received from China to restart withdrawal of troops from the scenes of the face-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and other senior military and intelligence officials on Wednesday and discussed the latest set of proposals New Delhi received from Beijing for withdrawal of the troops from the face-off points on the LAC – the de facto border between the two nations.

A decision on New Delhi’s response to the proposals from Beijing will be taken soon, sources said after the meeting.

China conveyed its new “disengagement proposal” to India when Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the then General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 14 Corps of the Indian Army, had a meeting with Maj Gen Liu Lin of the communist country’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Chushul close to the LAC on Monday. Singh was also accompanied by Lt Gen P G K Menon, who succeeded him on Tuesday. The diplomats of the two sides also took part in the meeting.

The senior military commanders of two sides earlier had six rounds of talks after the stand-off started following the Chinese PLA’s unilateral move to push the LAC westward and the Indian Army’s counter-deployment in late April and early May.

The disengagement process they had mutually agreed upon remained stalled since mid-July with the Chinese PLA declining to completely withdraw troops from several “points of friction” along the LAC – like Depsang Y junction, Gogra Post and the northern bank of Pangong Tso.