Ladakh Standoff: India-China LAC talks to be held today between top military commanders

The commanders of India and China’s militaries will hold talks between 11-11:30 am on Saturday in an effort to resolve the tense situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. Commander Lt General Harinder Singh is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point. The meeting was scheduled to be held at 8:30 am but has been rescheduled now. This comes a day after the foreign ministry officials of both nations on Friday discussed the flaring of tensions on the disputed border, and resolved to settle the differences peacefully.

The Indian side is expected to present specific proposals at the talks to de-escalate tension in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley and Demchok - the three areas in eastern Ladakh where the two sides have been on a bitter standoff for the last one month, the sources said.It is not immediately known what will be the proposals that the Indian military will take to the negotiating table but it is understood that it will insist on return to status quo in all the areas. The two sides have already held at least 10 rounds of negotiations between local commanders as well as major general-rank officials of the two armies but the talks did not yield any positive result, they said. After the standoff began early last month, the Indian military leadership decided that Indian troops will adopt a firm approach dealing with the aggressive posturing by the Chinese troops in all disputed areas of Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie.