NEW DELHI, July 17: India today strongly pressed for early disengagement of troops from all the remaining friction points in Eastern Ladakh at the 16th round of high-level military talks with China, which took place after a gap of over four months.
In the discussions that lasted for around 12-and-a-half hours, the Indian delegation also insisted on the restoration of the status quo ante as of April 2020 — before the start of the military standoff, people familiar with the development said.
The talks began at 9:30 am at the Chushul Moldo meeting point on the Indian side of the LAC in the region, and ended at around 10 pm, they said.
There were some expectations of progress at the talks on completing the disengagement process at Patrolling Point-15 in the Hot Springs area.
The Indian delegation at the talks was led by Lt-General Anindya Sengupta, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, while the Chinese team was headed by South Xinjiang Military District Chief Major General Yang Lin.
There was no official word on the outcome of the talks.
The 15th round of the military dialogue took place on March 11 but it failed to yield any significant outcome, with both sides, in a joint statement, reaffirming that resolution of the issues would help restore peace and tranquillity in the region and facilitate progress in bilateral relations.
The Indian side pressed for disengagement of troops as soon as possible in all the remaining friction points, the people cited above said.
It is learnt that the Indian delegation also sought resolution of pending issues in Depsang Bulge and Demchok.
India has been consistently maintaining that peace and tranquillity along the LAC were key for the overall development of bilateral ties.
The situation in eastern Ladakh figured prominently in talks between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Bali on July 7. (PTI)
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