India, China hold General-level talks at the Daulat Beg Oldie to discuss friction points along LAC

New Delhi, May 17: In a significant development, India and China held major general-level talks at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), which is towards the major troop stand-off point of Depsang Bulge or Plains in the north, amid the India-China border standoff that is now entering its fourth year now.

 

 

Reports described the talks between 3 Infantry Division commander Major General P K Mishra and his People’s Liberation Army (PLA) counterpart as a "routine border management meeting" that is held regularly at the battalion, brigade and division levels to "maintain security and stability" along the Line of Actual Control.

The meeting comes after there was yet again no concrete breakthrough in the top-level 18th round of corps commander talks, which is a notch higher than the Major General talks, at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on April 23 after a gap of over four months.

While the Indian delegation was led by Lieutenant General Rashim Bali, an officer of the same rank led the talks from the Chinese side from the local theatre command.

The meeting was crucial as it took place just before the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting, in which Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu also participated and discussed issues concerning the two sides.

 

Reports suggest that two sides exchanged “proposals and counter-proposals” at that dialogue. However, China till now has not agreed to India’s push for troop disengagement at the strategically-located Depsang Plains and the Charding Ninglung Nallah (CNN) track junction at Demchok as the first step towards eventual de-escalation and de-induction of the over 50,000 troops each forward deployed with heavy weapon systems in eastern Ladakh.

Depsang Bulge, a table-top plateau is located at an altitude of 16,000-feet, where the PLA has been actively blocking Indian soldiers around 18-km inside what India considers its own territory.