China welcomes progress in senior military commander-level talks with India to 'disengage' at LAC

Beijing: China on Wednesday welcomed the progress made in Sino-India senior military commander-level talks to “disengage and deescalate the situation” at the LAC and said the two sides are working towards implementing the consensus reached so far.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that Chinese and Indian military commanders held the third round of talks on June 30.

He said, “The two sides continue working towards implementing the consensus reached at the two earlier rounds of commander-level talks and made progress ineffective measures by frontline troops to disengage and deescalate the situation.”

“China welcomes that,” Zhao said in a reply posted on the Foreign Ministry website to a query about the June 30 senior commander-level talks.

“We hope the Indian side will work with the Chinese side towards the same goal, keep up close communication through military and diplomatic channels, and ease the situation and reduce the temperature along the border,” he said.

The Indian and Chinese armies are locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last seven weeks, and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15. The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details.

In the talks on June 22, the two sides arrived at a “mutual consensus” to “disengage” from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh.

The first round of the Lt General-level talks was held on June 6 during which both sides finalized an agreement to disengage gradually from all the standoff points beginning with Galwan Valley.

However, the situation deteriorated following the Galwan Valley clashes as the two sides significantly bolstered their deployments in most areas along the Line of Actual Control.