1. India, China agree on 5-point action plan

• Countering the Chinese claims, government sources here said the events of the past few months have “inevitably impacted the bilateral relationship”. In particular, India had made the point that the mobilisation of a large number of PLA troops was responsible for the “flashpoints along the LAC”.
• “The Chinese side has not provided a credible explanation for this deployment,” the sources said, blaming the “provocative behaviour of Chinese front-line troops at numerous incidents” for the violence, while Indian troops had “scrupulously” adhered to protocols.
• Military commanders’ meetings in the next few days will chalk out the steps for disengagement more clearly, which the Foreign Ministers will review before deciding on the course ahead. While border commanders agreed to disengagement procedures in June as well (which made little headway), the government feels that they now have concrete proposals and commitments from Mr. Wang, who is also the State Councillor, thus indicating a “policy decision” by Beijing to disengage.

Russia’s initiative

• The meeting between the Foreign Ministers was facilitated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Later, a Russia-India-China lunch set the stage for the bilateral talks on Thursday. It is expected to be followed by Special Representatives’ talks and another meeting of the Working Mechanism on Consultation and Coordination on India-China border affairs.
• In November, Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi are expected to attend the G-20 summit in Saudi Arabia, which will be the first time the two leaders, who have not yet spoken to each other during the stand-off, could meet.