Defence minister Rajnath Singh will make an important announcement at 10am on Sunday, his office announced om Twitter.

“Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will make an important announcement at 10.00 am today,” RMO India tweeted.

This comes a day after senior military commanders from India and China met in the Daulat Beg Oldie sector and held talks on reducing tensions along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh will make an important announcement at 10.00 am today.

— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) August 9, 2020

The talks focussed on thinning the buildup of troops and weaponry in Depsang plains where the forward deployment of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has disrupted the Indian Army’s patrolling patterns, people familiar with the developments said.

Heightened concerns about Depsang come from an earlier intrusion in this sector in 2013, when the PLA set up positions 19 km into the Indian side of the LAC and triggered a face-off that took three weeks to resolve.

The PLA’s forward deployments in Depsang have hindered the access of Indian soldiers to several patrolling routes including the ones leading to Patrolling Points (PP) 10, 11, 11A 12 and 13, said one of the officials cited above. The military buildup in this sector includes deployment of tanks and artillery by the two armies, said a second official.

The latest round of military talks between division commander-ranked officers came days after their bosses (the corps commanders) met on August 2 to discuss the next stage of disengagement at a time when negotiations have hit a roadblock due to differences between the two sides in the Finger Area and the PLA’s reluctance to vacate positions held by it in what New Delhi claims as Indian territory.

The outcome of Saturday’s talks wasn’t immediately known as there was no official word from the army.