A team of Defence, Foreign and Home Ministry officials will take part in the Sixth Corps Commander level meeting. The meeting will be between India and China officials on the border standoff in Ladakh on Monday.
The meeting is expected to go in the long term. India is insisting on a time-bound withdrawal of the People’s Liberation Army from all the friction points. The Chinese are also coming with the agenda of India to step down from all the strategic heights.
India will also insist on free and obstruction less access to the 15 Patrolling Points. China is currently blocking the patrolling points in Eastern Ladakh.
Lt General Harinder Singh, the Corps Commander of the Leh 14 Corps will lead the Indian side. His Chinese counterpart, Major General Liu Lin will be leading the China side.
Since every sentence spoken will be translated, it is likely that the meetings will go on for 12 hours on average. The Indian delegation will consist of at least 13 military officials. It includes Commanders of two divisions responsible for Ladakh. Major General Abhijit Bapat and Major General Padam Shekhawat are the leading commanders.
Lt. General P Menon is also part of the Indian delegation.
The ITBP is also a part of the meeting. Deepam Seth, the IG NorthWest Frontier will represent ITBP. Presently, ITBP jointly patrols the forward areas along with the army. They directly report to the Home Ministry.
The meeting between the two countries is the first after the meeting of External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, and Wang Yi on September 11. In the meeting, they both agreed upon a five-point consensus.
However, it is evident that there will be no breakthrough from the meeting.
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