China hails de-escalation talks with India, but won't budge on Pangong Tso

New Delhi: The Indian and Chinese armies have prepared a blueprint for withdrawing their troops from six out of seven points of conflict in Eastern Ladakh.

But the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has expressed unwillingness to withdraw troops from the strategic location near Pangong Tso lake.

Though the plan for withdrawal has been drafted, troops of the two nations continue to face each other at the border.

Meanwhile, China on Wednesday welcomed the progress made in Sino-India senior military commander-level talks to "disengage and de-escalate the situation" at the LAC and said the two sides are working towards implementing the consensus reached so far.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that Chinese and Indian military commanders held third round of talks on June 30.

He said the "two sides continue working towards implementing the consensus reached at the two earlier rounds of commander-level talks and made progress in effective measures by frontline troops to disengage and deescalate the situation."

"China welcomes that," Zhao said in a reply posted on the Foreign Ministry website to a query about the June 30 senior commander-level talks.

"We hope the Indian side will work with the Chinese side towards the same goal, keep up close communication through military and diplomatic channels, and ease the situation and reduce the temperature along the border," he said.

Defence Minister to visit Ladakh

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to visit Ladakh on Friday to take stock of India's military preparedness in the wake of a bitter border standoff with the Chinese troops in the region, government sources said.

To be accompanied by Chief of Army Staff Gen M M Naravane, it will be the defence minister's first visit to Ladakh after the standoff between the two armies began on May 5.

The Indian and Chinese armies are locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last seven weeks, and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15. The Chinese side also suffered casualties but it is yet to give out the details.

In the talks on June 22, the two sides arrived at a "mutual consensus" to "disengage" from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh.

The first round of the Lt General-level talks were held on June 6 during which both sides finalised an agreement to disengage gradually from all the standoff points beginning with Galwan Valley.

However, the situation deteriorated following the Galwan Valley clashes as the two sides significantly bolstered their deployments in most areas along the Line of Actual Control.

(With PTI inputs.)