After Pangong Tso, India, China agree to find ways to end stand-off elsewhere along LAC

A significant step forward that provided a good basis for resolution of other remaining issues along the LAC, said a joint statement

After withdrawing frontline troops from the face-off points on both banks of Pangong Tso, India and China have now agreed to find mutually acceptable ways to resolve the stand-off elsewhere along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) too.

A day after the Corps Commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had a 16-hour-long meeting, the two sides issued a joint statement noting that the recent disengagement of the frontline troops from the northern and the southern banks of Pangong Tso was “a significant step forward that provided a good basis for resolution of other remaining issues” along the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two neighbouring nations.

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Lt. Gen. P G K Menon, the commander of the Indian Army’s 14 Corps, led the delegation from India in the talks, which was held at Moldo adjacent to Chushul across the LAC. His counterpart from the Chinese PLA, Maj Gen Liu Lin, led the delegation from the neighbouring country.

They had a candid and in-depth exchange of views on other issues along the LAC in the Western Sector, according to the joint statement issued in New Delhi and Beijing.

Sources in New Delhi said that the two sides had focussed on working out a plan for mutual disengagement of troops from other face-off points along the LAC, like Gogra Post, Hot Springs and Depsang.

It was the 10th round of meeting between the Corps Commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA after the stand-off started in late April and early May last year.

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The two sides agreed “to follow the important consensus of their state leaders, continue their communication and dialogue, stabilize and control the situation on the ground, push for a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues in a steady and orderly manner, so as to jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” according to the joint statement issued on Sunday.

The ninth round of talks between them on January 24 last had seen a significant breakthrough which finally resulted in the disengagement of troops by both sides on the north and south banks of Pangong Tso.