Ladakh standoff: India, China to restart pullback

broadly agreed to restart the gradual and verifiable troop disengagement from 'friction points' in Galwan Valley and Gogra-Hot Springs areas of eastern Ladakh, which got derailed the last time after Chinese soldiers reneged on the pullback agreement, leading to deadly clashes on June 15.

However, there has been no breakthrough as yet in defusing the major troop confrontation at Pangong Tso, where PLA soldiers have built a large number of fortifications.

Official sources on Wednesday said "both sides emphasised the need for an expeditious, phased and step-wise de-escalation as a priority" during the 12-hour marathon meeting between the military leaders on Tuesday. This was the third such meeting since June 6.

It will, however, be a long-drawn process, with a lot of finetuning yet to be done. Moreover, India will be extremely cautious this time. The trust deficit is huge due to the premeditated attack on Indian soldiers near PP-14 in Galwan Valley on June 15, in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops were killed.