India and China had “candid, in-depth and constructive” discussions during the November 6 senior military commanders talks to resolve the seven-month long border standoff, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

Anurag Srivastava, the official spokesperson of the foreign ministry, said during a weekly media briefing that both sides exchanged views on disengagement at all friction points along the Line of Actual Control in the western sector of India-China border areas.

“India and China have agreed to maintain dialogue and communication through military and diplomatic channels, and, taking forward the discussions at this meeting of the senior commanders, push for the settlement of other outstanding issues,” he said. “They have also agreed to have another round of meeting soon.”

Reports said India and China have broadly agreed on a three-step process for disengagement of troops from all the major friction points in a time-bound manner to ease the standoff along the LAC in Ladakh. The ninth round of military talks is likely to take place in the next few days.

Advertisement

The standoff is in a stalemate since May, when Chinese troops moved to take control of the territory that had been patrolled by Indian soldiers for decades. The initial scuffles led up to a pitched battle – without firearms – in June that saw 20 Indian soldiers killed, with Beijing refusing to release casualty numbers on its side.

Nearly 50,000 Indian Army troops are currently deployed in various locations in eastern Ladakh in sub-zero conditions amid the border tensions, according to PTI. Officials said China has also deployed an equal number of soldiers on their side.

On November 6, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat had said that the possibility of confrontations and unprovoked military actions spiralling into a larger conflict “cannot be discounted”. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said on October 31 that the relations between India and China have come under “severe stress” and the agreements made by the two sides over the past few years have to be respected to restore normalcy.