India will keep talking with China to end stand-off: MEA

India will continue to hold dialogue with China to find “a mutually acceptable solution” to the stand-off in eastern Ladakh, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Friday, even as the senior military commanders of the two nations held the eighth round of talks to ease tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“We will continue to maintain the dialogue with the Chinese side to arrive at a mutually acceptable solution to the current situation along the LAC in eastern Ladakh,” Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the MEA, said in New Delhi.

The senior military commanders of the two nations held the eighth round of talks near the LAC on Friday. Lt Gen P G K Menon, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 14 Corps, led the delegation of the Indian Army. Maj Gen Liu Lin led the delegation of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The two sides discussed India's response to the fresh “disengagement proposals” put forward by the Chinese PLA last month to end the six-month-long stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

“As conveyed earlier,” the MEA spokesperson said, “both sides continue to maintain close communication at the military and diplomatic levels to achieve complete disengagement along the LAC. The two sides are guided by the leaders’ consensus to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the border areas.”

The sixth round of talks between the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA on October 12 saw both sides agreeing to stop further deployment of soldiers on the face-off scenes.

They, however, could not reach an agreement to restart the stalled process of pulling back soldiers already deployed on the LAC. The Chinese PLA put forward a fresh proposal for disengagement when the military commanders of the two sides had the seventh round of meetings.

The proposal was studied by a panel comprising senior army and intelligence officials, bureaucrats, and diplomats of the Government of India.

The disengagement process the two sides had mutually agreed upon in early July 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.