New Fire and Fury Corps commander to head Indo-China talks this week
New Delhi, Oct 19: India and China will hold the military commander level talks this week.
This time around the talks will be headed by Lt. General P G K Menon who took over as the commander of the Fire and Fury Corps from Lt. Gen Harinder Singh last week.
The Fire and Fury Corps is responsible for the operations in Ladakh. Lt. Gen Menon was posted as the Additional Director of the Complaint Advisor Board at the Army Headquarters.
Lt. Gen Menon takes over as Fire and Fury Corps commander
In his farewell message Lt. Gen Singh conveyed his regards to all ranks in the Fire Fury. He appreciated their dedication to the nation, even in the most hostile terrain and challenges faced by any Army in the world.
Lt. Gen Singh led the Corps commander-level talks began at around 12 noon in Chushul on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and continued beyond 8:30 pm on Monday.
As the border standoff entered the sixth month, an early resolution to the row appeared dim with close to 100,000 Indian and Chinese troops remaining deployed in the high-altitude region and showing readiness for a long-haul.
Sources tell OneIndia that the issue is being dealt with an immense amount of patience. We do not expect a quick fix, but want a long lasting solution to the issue. It is important that we keep talking and hence the dialogue channels have been kept open the source also said.
The official also said that the talks will be held on October 26. Besides reviewing the security challenges facing the nation, the Army commanders will attempt to finalise various reform measures recommended by separate internal committees in utilisation of resources while at the same time focusing on enhancing the operational capability of the 1.3-million-strong force, they said.
The conference will be chaired by Chief of Army Staff Gen M M Naravane and all top commanders will attend it, the sources said.
A high bar for a relationship: Jaishankar on India-China ties
Some of the proposals to be on the table at the conference include discontinuing or at least bringing down the scale of the Army Day and Territorial Army Day parades, cutting down on various ceremonial practices, and reducing the number of officers' mess within individual peace stations, the sources said.