India and China today held the 19th round of military-level talks to end the ongoing stand-off at eastern Ladakh so as to restore peace in the border areas.

The talks were aimed at disengagement of troops in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh and ease overall tensions in the region, highly placed sources said.

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The talks took place at Chushul-Moldo border point on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region. The 19th round has taken place nearly four months after the last edition of the military talks.

The Indian delegation was headed by Lt Gen Rashim Bali, Commander of the Leh-headquartered 14 Corps. The Chinese team was led by the commander of the South Xinjiang military district.

India is believed to have pressed  for early disengagement of troops from the remaining friction points, emphasising that relations between the two countries could not become normal until the border face-off was amicably resolved. The Indian delegation particularly pushed for troop disengagement at Depsang and Demchok.

Sources said confidence-building measures, ensuring adherence to border protocols, sharing of patrol information to avoid clashes between troops and ensuring adequate communication between the ground troops —along the LAC and at buffer zones — were being discussed between the two sides.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh even as the two sides completed disengagement from some of the key areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks.

Upping the ante ahead of the military talks, National security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval recently told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the situation along the LAC since 2020 had “eroded strategic trust and the public and political basis of the relationship.”

Sources said a positive outcome of today’s talks could set the stage for a possible meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Africa later this month on the margins of the BRICS Summit.

The Chinese leader is also scheduled to visit India for the G20 summit on 9-10 September, heightening the prospects of a breakthrough in the talks ahead of the crucial visit. Such a breakthrough had happened in 2017 when Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a stand-off at Doklam. The two-and-half-month-old deadlock ended days before Modi and Xi were scheduled to meet for the BRICS summit in Xiamen (China).