India-China: The Army is also looking to change rules of engagement along Line of Actual Control

New Delhi:

A day after inconclusive talks over the face-off in eastern Ladakh, a Major General of the Indian Army is holding talks with Chinese military officers at Galwan valley. The talks being held are in the area where violent clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers took place on Monday night. 20 soldiers including a Colonel gave their lives for India, while Army sources have said they believe some 45 Chinese soldiers were killed or injured.

At the moment, there are no signs of the Chinese disengaging from the area, sources said. The area is close to the Line of Actual Control or LAC between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

China overran Indian posts in this area in the 1962 war, but since then has not frequently patrolled this area and has not asserted any territorial claims. They now lay claim to the entire Galwan valley, which places them in a direct stand-off with the Indian Army.

Chinese soldiers took “pre-meditated and planned action” that was directly responsible for Monday’s clash at Galwan valley, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told his China counterpart Wang Yi in a phone conversation on Wednesday.

India wants restoration of the status quo along the LAC that prevailed before May when the first reports of Chinese incursions started appearing.

Talks between Major Generals of India and China were inconclusive on Wednesday.

In a similar meeting on June 6, Lieutenant General-level talks were held to end the stand-off at Pangong Tso and a number of other areas in eastern Ladakh. In the over four-and-a-half-hour meeting, Indian had pressed for restoration of status quo and immediate withdrawal of a sizeable number of Chinese troops from all the stand-off points.