Nine rounds of military talks held with the Chinese, will continue: Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said senior military commanders ofIndia and China have held nine rounds of talks on the processof disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh and theparleyswill continue in future also.

Addressing reporters in Vijayawada, he said so far therewas no ''visible expression'' of the talks on ground.

''The disengagement talks, because it is a verycomplicated issue, because it depends on troops, you have toknow the geography (like) which position and what ishappening, this is being done by the military commanders,'' hesaid.

The minister was replying to a query on whether therewould be any ministerial level talks between both thecountries on skirmishes between troops of the Asian giants.

China and India are locked in a military standoff ineastern Ladakh since May 5 last.

The two countries have held several rounds of militaryand diplomatic talks to resolve the face-off, but nosignificant headway has been made so far.

''So, military commanders have held nine rounds ofmeetings so far.

We believe some progress has been made, but it is not, ina kind of situation where there is a visible expression ofthat on the ground,'' he said.

Referring to the parleys he and Defence Minister RajnathSingh held with their respective chinese counterparts lastyear in Moscow, Jaishanakar said it was agreed that thereshould be disengagement in some points.

''Right now the military commanders are talking and theywill continue to talk,'' he said.

On the recent union budget, he said there has been asignificant additional outlay for the Defence, both in thefinancial year as well as capital expenditure.

The minister said there is an 18 per cent increase in thecapital expenditure which, according to him, is the highestduring the past 15 years.

During the COVID-19 induced lockdown last year,Jaishankar noted that as many as four million Indians strandedabroad were brought back by operating 17,000 flights.

The workers who came back from gulf countries during theCOVID-19 pandemic have now started returning, which is a goodsign, he added.

Explaining the salient features of the budget, he said itindicates the way between the ''COVID-19 recovery and Economicrecovery''.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)