India, China hold 12th round of military talks; focus on disengagement

India and China are holding another round of high-level military talks on Saturday with an aim to move forward on the disengagement process in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh to end an over 14-month standoff, sources in the security establishment said.

The 12th round of Corps Commander-level talks are taking place at the Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, they said.

The talks started at 10:30 AM as scheduled, said a source.

India is hopeful of a positive outcome on the disengagement process in Hot Springs and Gogra, the sources said about the talks.

The latest round of talks is taking place after a gap of more than three and a half months. The 11th round of military dialogue had taken place on April 9 at the Chushul border point on the Indian side of the LAC and it lasted for around 13 hours.

The 12th round of military talks is taking place over two weeks after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar firmly conveyed to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that the prolongation of the existing situation in eastern Ladakh was visibly impacting the bilateral ties in a "negative manner".

The two foreign ministers had held a one-hour bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tajik capital city Dushanbe on July 14.

In the meeting, Jaishankar told Wang that any unilateral change in the status quo along the LAC was "not acceptable" to India and that the overall ties can only develop after full restoration of peace and tranquillity in eastern Ladakh.

In the last round of military talks, both sides discussed ways to take forward the disengagement process in Hot Springs, Gogra and Depsang with a larger aim to bring down tensions in the region. However, there was no forward movement in the disengagement process.