India and China held the 13th round of Corps Commander talks on Sunday at Moldo on the Chinese side with focus on working out the third phase of disengagement from patrolling Point 15 in Hot Springs as part of overall disengagement and de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.
The talks began around 10:30am on Sunday at Moldo and concluded at about 7pm, a defence official said.The Indian side was led by the Army’sLeh based 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen P.G.K. Menon. Details on the outcome of talks were not immediately available.
In addition to the overall disengagement and de-escalation, the two sides had also agreed to work out new protocols for patrolling to ensure such instances do not occur again.
Since the standoff began in May last year, the two sides have held a series of talks at different levels, political, diplomatic and military, and as part of agreements reached have undertaken disengagement from both sides of Pangong Tso in February and the Patrolling Point 17 at Gogra area in August.
In Eastern Ladakh, India and China have two mutually agreed disputed areas, Trig Heights and Demchok, and 10 areas of differing perception. As reported by The Hindu earlier, officials said since the stand off last year, additional five friction points have emerged. These include Km 120 in Galwan area, Patrolling Point (PP) 15 and PP17 and Rechin La and Rezang La on the South Bank of Pangong Tso.