Ladakh: 4th round of Corps Commanders' meet today

The fourth round of Corps Commander level meeting between Indian and Chinese People’s Liberation Army will take place on Tuesday at eastern Ladakh to discuss further disengagement of the troops and withdrawal of the armaments from the depth areas.

Like the previous three rounds, the discussions will be led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Leh-based 14 Corps from the Indian side and Maj Gen Liu Lin, Commander, South Xinjiang Military Region representing the PLA. It would be held at Chushul on the Indian side.

Both sides will talk on further de-escalation measures like reduction of the additional troops as well as the withdrawing of the howitzers, tanks and armoured vehicles that were brought in by the two armies on both sides of the disputed boundary. The two commanders will also discuss the verification norms for the pull-back exercise.

Vacating the Finger Complex on the northern banks of the Pangong Tso will also feature prominently in the talks. While the PLA army moved back to Finger 5 instead of Finger 4, which they had occupied since the last three months, the Indian Army is nowhere close to its original position of being able to patrol up to Finger 8.

Both sides had withdrawn their troops at Galwan, Hot Spring and Gogra creating a temporary buffer zone that is not being patrolled by either of the two armies for the time being.

The withdrawal of troops and removal of temporary structures that continued for the better part of the previous week, coupled with high-level diplomatic engagement clears the deck for the fourth round of discussions between the military commanders.

The formal process of disengagement of troops began last Monday following an extensive telephonic conversation between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi the previous day.

On Friday, India and China held another round of diplomatic talks during which both sides resolved to push ahead with "complete disengagement" of troops in eastern Ladakh in a timely manner for "full restoration" of peace and tranquility.