On Friday, Indian and Chinese diplomats held further rounds of talks to restore calm and reduced the numbers of troops in the Galwan valley of India’s Ladakh region, where the two nations had the worst clash in decades on June 15.
The Galway valley clash over a month ago resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers.
The diplomats had planned to hold talks through a virtual conference on the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs, a New Delhi government source said.
“It is our expectation that the Chinese side will sincerely work with us for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas at the earliest,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.
A United States (US) official told Reuters that the US had noticed a build-up of troops on the LAC, estimating that both countries had over 10,000 troops in the de facto border area.
“We’re still seeing actually troop reinforcements and weapon reinforcements moving towards the border. So by no means are we out of the woods yet,” the US official said.
Once China and India agree on the steps to withdraw troops from frontline positions, the next agreement would be for the removal of all the extra troops and military equipment that were stationed in border areas after the Galwan Valley clash.
As a form of non- military retaliation against China, India has outlawed 59 Chinese apps including TikTok and Alibaba’s UC Browser, as well as required firms from neighboring countries seeking government contracts to register and obtain a security clearance.