India-China: Talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders began this morning in an effort to sort out the remaining “difficult” areas in Ladakh: Depsang and Demchok. Today’s meeting, high-level defence sources said, is not at a corps commander level, but at a slightly lower one, between an Indian major general and his Chinese equivalent. The issue on the agenda: Depsang.
The meeting began this morning at Daulat Beg Oldi or DBO and leading the Indian side is Major General Prasanna Mishra, commanding 3 Division in the area. He is an infantrymen, with the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry. His negotiations are with a Chinese major general equivalent.
The Depsang problem was there long before the problems in Galwan happened in 2020. It began with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army placing a barricade preventing Indian Army soldiers from reaching their patrolling point— the point up to where they are to get to. The Indian Army did just that after that.
India-China: Talks are likely to go on all day in DBO which is 18,000 feet high. Major General Mishra and his Chinese counterpart had successfully negotiated the disengagement in the PP15 area. This has given the Indian side hope of some forward movement during the meeting. A similar problem exists in the Demchok area. If this meeting goes well— nobody is expecting an immediate solution— and there is even a sign of some headway— there could be a meeting on Demchok in Chushul.
Importantly, India is the head of the G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. And potentially, there could be two visits by Chinese supreme leader Xi Jinping, to India between July and September this year
