New Delhi, Feb 21: India and China held extensive deliberations on expanding the disengagement process in eastern Ladakh at the 10th round of the military talks that lasted for around 16 hours, official sources said on Sunday.
The Corps Commander-level talks at the Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control began at around 10 am on Saturday and ended at 2 am on Sunday, they said.
The sources said the focus of the talks was to take forward the disengagement process in friction points like Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang in eastern Ladakh. However, there was no official word on the talks so far.
The talks took place two days after both militaries concluded withdrawal of troops and weapons from North and South banks of Pangong Tso in the high-altitude region.
In the talks, India is learnt to have insisted on a faster disengagement process in areas like Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang to bring down tension in the region.
On Saturday evening, sources had said that bringing down the tension in the region was the broad priority of the talks. India has all along been maintaining that disengagement at all the friction points was necessary to de-escalate the situation in the region.
On February 11, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced in Parliament that India and China reached an agreement on disengagement in the North and South banks of Pangong lake that mandates both sides to “cease” forward deployment of troops in a “phased, coordinated and verifiable” manner.
Under the agreement, he said China will pull back its troops to east of Finger 8 areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake while the Indian personnel will be based at their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa Post near Finger 3 in the region. Similar action would take place on the south bank of the lake as well, he said.
The sources said troops of both sides have retreated to positions in line with the agreement. (PTI)
