The 14th round of military discussions between India and China
The 14th round of military discussions between India and China lasted 13 hours.
The 14th round of Corps Commander level discussions between India and China took place yesterday at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point and lasted nearly 13 hours.
The discussion took place on the Chinese side and finished approximately 10:30 p.m. According to sources close to the occasion, the Indian side was represented by Lt General Anindya Sengupta, the new 14 Corps commander.
At the 14th round of military negotiations with China on Wednesday, India advocated for an early disengagement of soldiers from the remaining contention points in eastern Ladakh, according to security sources.
They reported a new round of Corps Commander-level talks took place on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh at the Chushul-Moldo border point.
Lt Gen Anindya Sengupta, the newly-appointed Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, headed the Indian team to the negotiations. South Xinjiang Military District Chief Maj Gen Yang Lin was to lead the Chinese delegation.
The Indian side also demanded that all remaining friction spots, including the Depsang Bulge and Demchok concerns, be resolved as soon as feasible. The 13th round of negotiations took held on October 10 and ended in a deadlock.
Both parties failed to make any progress in the negotiations, with the Indian Army claiming afterward that its "constructive suggestions" were not acceptable to the Chinese side and that it could not make any "forward-looking" proposals.
The new talks come just days after India chastised China for constructing a bridge across Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh, claiming that it is in a territory that has been under China's illegal occupancy for more than 60 years.
Last week, India called China's renaming of some locations in Arunachal Pradesh a "ridiculous exercise" aimed at bolstering "untenable territorial" claims, stating that the state has always been and would always be a "indigenous" part of India.
On November 18, India and China agreed to hold the 14th round of military discussions as soon as possible in order to achieve the goal of complete disengagement in eastern Ladakh's remaining contention points.
Following a deadly fight in the Pangong lake areas, an eastern Ladakh border stalemate between Indian and Chinese forces erupted on May 5, 2020.
Both sides gradually increased their deployment by bringing in tens of thousands of troops and heavy equipment.
Last year, the two sides concluded the disengagement process on the north and south banks of the Pangong Lake, as well as in the Gogra area, following a series of military and diplomatic talks.
In the sensitive region, each side has between 50,000 and 60,000 troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).