Uneasy Calm: The Pangong Lake in Leh district of Ladakh, one of the points of friction.So far both sides have held five rounds of Major General level talks

Talks are underway between India and China at the Brigade Commander and Commanding Officer (CO) level in the Galwan area of Eastern Ladakh to resolve the stand-off, defence sources said on Monday.

The talks are focused on de-escalation at Patrolling Points (PP) 14 and 17A, the sources said and pointed out that ground-level military talks were on regularly to resolve the stand-offs and it was an incremental process.

So far both sides have held five rounds of Major General-level talks, of which two rounds happened last week after the Corps Commander level talks on June 6. There have also been a series of talks at the Brigadier and Colonel levels. Meanwhile, the limited “disengagement” agreed by both sides was underway, the sources stated.

Last Saturday, Army Chief Gen. Naravane stated that troops of both sides were “disengaging” in a phased manner from the stand-off areas following the series of ground talks and a lot of disengagement had happened in the Galwan river area.

After the month-long stand-offs at several locations, at the Corps Commanders talks last week both sides mutually agreed on five locations of conflict, Patrolling Point (PP) 14, 15, 17A, North bank of Pangong Tso and Chushul and also on partial disengagement from some of these places. The sources said that at the Galwan area, limited “disengagement” had began earlier and such limited de-escalation at PP 15, 17A and Gogra areas was agreed at the Corps Commander level.

The sources asserted that in areas, except the Finger 4 area of Pangong Tso, were seeing some disengagement and could be resolved at the local level. Pangong Tso remains a major area of concern where Chinese troops have moved up to Finger 4 area and dug in on Indian territory. The next round of Corps Commander level talks have not been decided yet.