New Delhi: With the first phase of the 'disengagement' between the Indian Army and the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) having being completed on the north and south banks of the Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh, the senior commanders of Asia's two largest militaries will meet for the tenth round of talks on Saturday morning.
"The two sides will meet at 10 AM on Saturday in Moldo which is on the Chinese side across India’s Chushul in eastern Ladakh. Unlike the earlier rounds that often extended to about 16 hours, this meeting is expected to be a short and crisp affair where a stocktaking and assessment of the 'disengagement' will be undertaken," a military source told ETV Bharat.
"The processes of disengagement in the other points of dispute like Hot Springs, Gogra and the Depsang areas will follow later possibly in subsequent rounds."
The source also added that the two sides moved back troops, tanks, heavy guns besides dismantling structures like tents, pill-boxes and gun positions from the north and south banks of the lake.
The fixing of dates for the tenth round took place even as the PLA on Friday declared the number of casualties in the bloody Galwan incident on June 15, 2020 which claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers including a Colonel.
After having kept mum for about eight months, the PLA’s Central Military Commission (CMC) named five officers and soldiers—Qi Fabao, the regimental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command, and four soldiers Chen Hongjun, Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran—as having received recognition for displaying heroism in the Galwan incident. Of the five, four died during the brutal brawl.
The June 15 Galwan incident was the worst border conflict between the two countries in about 45 years.
While Lieutenant-General PGK Menon, the 14 Corps commander, who took over on October 14, 2020 will lead the Indian side on Saturday, the PLA is expected to be led by South Xinjiang Military district commander Major-General Lin Liu.
Ever since the border row snowballed from a border fisticuffs fight on May 5, 2020 into a major standoff where a huge number of troops and military equipment were deployed almost all across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) from eastern Ladakh in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east, the two sides have met for nine times—on June 6, June 22, June 30, July 14, August 2, September 21, October 12, November 6 and January 24—in a bid to 'disengage and de-escalate'.
After having surprised the Indian forces during the initial period of the standoff and gaining the first-mover advantage, the PLA remained stubborn and unrelenting in the talks only to concede after the Indian army’s brilliant tactic on August 29-30, 2020 in occupying vital heights on the Kailash range on the southern bank of the Pangong lake. From that time onwards, tactical negotiations have been between equals.
Read: China officially admits five military officers, soldiers killed in Galwan clash with Indian Army
