India-China tension: Sixth Corps Commanders to meet on Monday at Moldo on the LAC

The sixth meeting between senior military leaders from India and China will take place at the Chushul-Moldo area of eastern Ladakh on Monday to make yet another attempt to lower the level of tension at the 3,488 km Line of Actual Control, the disputed boundary between the two neighbours, which is on the boil since the last five months.

In addition to Lt Gen Harinder Singh, Commanding-in-Chief of Leh-based 14 Corps who led the Indian side in the previous five rounds of the dialogue, Naveen Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs and a senior officer from the Army Headquarters would be present at the meeting that would be held at Moldo Hut on the Chinese side of the LAC, sources said.

The Indian side would press for a “first-in, first-out” strategy suggesting since the Chinese People’s Liberation Army was the aggressor it would disengage and move out first before any reciprocal action from the Indian side.

The PLA delegation would be headed by Maj Gen Liu Lin, Commander, South Xinjiang Military Region. It’s not known whether there would be any other senior officials from the Chinese side.

The fifth round of discussions took place on August 2, but like the previous four, it failed to break the deadlock.

The sixth meeting, however, would be different from the previous ones because Indian Army currently occupies dominating heights on the southern banks of the Pangong Tso and Chushul sector, and for the first time can negotiate from a point of strength.

Also, this is the first senior-level military commanders meeting after 45 years of silence on the LAC was shattered by firings. The two armies blamed each other for the firing incidents that happened last month.

Subsequent to the firing incident, the Defence and Foreign Ministers of India and China met in Moscow separately in order to find out a solution to end the stand-off that began in May. The two Foreign Ministers presented a five-point formula that included the resumption of the dialogue between senior military commanders.

The Indian Army and the PLA have been locked in a tense stand-off in multiple areas along the LAC in eastern Ladakh since early May. A previous effort to ease off the tension didn't work out and led to a violent clash in the Galwan valley in June in which 20 Indian soldiers and a sizable number of PLA troops were killed in a brutal hand to hand combat.

In the five rounds of corps commander-level talks, the Indian side has been insisting on immediate restoration of status quo ante in all areas of eastern Ladakh prior to April. In the Parliament, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh made it clear that India was in no mood to give up on its "traditional; and well-defined" patrolling points that were blocked by the PLA troops.

The sources said India would not lower its guard and maintain the current state of very high-level combat readiness in eastern Ladakh till there were visible changes in the ground situation.