The Corps Commander-level talks between India and China on Monday were held in a “cordial, positive and constructive atmosphere,” informed the Army on Tuesday.

The Indian Army further stated that there was “mutual consensus to disengage” along the Line of Actual Control during the senior military-level meeting held at Moldo on the Chinese side of LAC opposite Chushul.

The modalities for disengagement from all friction areas in eastern Ladakh were discussed and will be taken forward by both the sides.

The high-level military talk, held to resolve the border issue and ease tension in eastern Ladakh, comes even as over thousands of Indian Armymen stood a few meters away from LAC against Chinese People’s Liberation Army.

This was the second such meeting after the first one on June 6 happened to defuse the tensions.

The meeting between 14 Corps commander Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Liu Lin happened on the lines of the one they held at the Chushul-Moldo border personnel meeting (BPM) point in eastern Ladakh on June 6.

However, even after the June 6 meeting, an unprecedented violent clash took place in Galwan Valley on the night of June 15 at the Line of Actual Control with Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers attacking a small group of Indian Army men on patrol, resulting in fatalities which included the commanding officer of the Indian Army.

The intensity of the fight increased with reinforcements from the both sides and it continued until late night till the time they got exhausted. Many Indian soldiers went missing during the fight. Early next morning, both Indian and Chinese top military officials rushed and called for a meeting to defuse the situation.

According to an AFP report, the soldiers were not shot but were killed in hand-to-hand combat on Indian territory. The soldiers threw punches and stones at each other and the Chinese troops allegedly used rods and nail-studded clubs during the fight that lasted for hours until midnight on Monday.

India lost 20 of its soldiers in the violent face-off.

Meanwhile, during the Monday meeting, the Chinese Army, for the first time admitted that it lost “less than 20” troops including a commanding officer in the clash at Galwan Valley.

China’s defence ministry had confirmed that the incident had resulted in casualties but did not give details. China had justified the censorship about the casualties of its troops arguing that it was a goodwill gesture from Beijing.

Meanwhile, The Global Times, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Community Party regime in Beijing, in a piece quoting “Chinese experts” said that “the reason why China did not release the number” of its casualties, is that China “wants to avoid an escalation.”

“If China released the number which is less than 20, the Indian government would again come under pressure,” the Global Times tweeted quoting an “observer” from the piece.