India and China hold a fresh round of diplomatic talks today to carry forward the disengagement process to resolve the over three-month-long border stand-off in eastern Ladakh, people familiar with the developments said.
The meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) was scheduled to take place today at 11 am.
The meeting between diplomats of the two sides, to be held via video conference.
The WMCC framework, established in 2012, was activated last month in the pursuit of a solution as tensions flared at the border.
Meanwhile, on Friday, in his first-ever speech after the Galwan clash, Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong said “peace is of paramount importance” and that China is “neither a warlike state nor an assertive country”.
Despite the two countries having earlier agreed to an “early and complete” disengagement of troops along the LAC, the process initiated on July 26 has hardly seen any progress in the past few weeks because of, according to sources in New Delhi, China’s reluctance to withdraw from Depsang and Pangong areas.
This will be the fifth engagement at the diplomatic level since the border standoff emerged into the open in early May and the Indian side is expected to reiterate its call for China to work sincerely towards complete disengagement and de-escalation along the LAC, the people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
