“India wants peace but will fight back if it is brought about by the Chinese,” sources said after the meeting.
New Delhi:
Yesterday, on the Chinese side of the border, a “mutual consensus of disengagement” took place during high-level military talks between India and China to discuss the Galwan confrontation and other points of conflict. The talks took place “in a cordial, positive and constructive atmosphere,” army sources said on Tuesday.
Details of the disengagement from all friction zones in eastern Ladakh have been discussed and will be advanced by both parties, the sources said.
Lieutenant-General level talks have taken place in Moldo, on the Chinese side of Chushul.
The last time a meeting at this level was held on June 6, when India and China agreed to withdraw their troops in an attempt to defuse after weeks of tension and accumulation. The disengagement began on both sides after this meeting; the Chinese withdrew their troops, followed by the Indians.
But on June 15, a struggle broke out between the two sides during the worst border confrontation between the Indian and Chinese armies since 1967.
Twenty Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty and 76 injured in the deadly confrontation sparked by the Chinese’s refusal to remove a tent as part of what had been agreed on June 6. Indian soldiers were attacked with rude and barbaric weapons used by Chinese troops, including studded clubs, spikes and stones. Army sources said 45 Chinese soldiers were killed or injured in the fight along the Galwan River.
On Sunday, India’s main defense establishment decided that the military would change its rules of engagement with the Chinese on the real line of control (LAC). Commanders in the field are now empowered to sanction the use of firearms in “extraordinary” circumstances.
“India wants peace but will fight back if it is brought about by the Chinese,” sources said after the meeting.
