India and China open Corps Commander talks on the Arunachal front

India and China held their first Corps Commander-level flag meetings in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control on 6 and 7 September. Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal confirmed the dates on Tuesday. The first sitting was at Wacha, on the Indian side north of Kibithoo in Anjaw district, Arunachal Pradesh. The second was at Damai, on the Chinese side, the next day.

Lieutenant General Girish Kalia, commander of 3 Corps, the Spear Corps headquartered at Rangapahar near Dimapur, led the Indian side. The corps covers a large share of the 1,140-kilometre LAC in Arunachal. The Chinese officer was not named. He is likely from the Western Theater Command. Jaiswal said the meetings followed understandings between the Special Representatives in August 2025 and August 2026, and Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination sessions in Beijing in May and in New Delhi in August.

A similar Corps Commander channel has existed in the western sector since 2020, after the Galwan clash. The eastern sector did not have one until this week. Jaiswal said both sides noted progress on the consensus reached by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan in October 2024 and in Tianjin in August 2025. They also pointed to the resumed Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and border trade through three designated passes. They agreed to keep using the WMCC, local commander meetings and other existing channels.

The immediate backdrop is Taksing in Upper Subansiri. In July, residents reported People’s Liberation Army soldiers or markings in a stretch where the line is not marked on the ground. The Nah Welfare Society wrote to the deputy commissioner naming five locations: Oying in Asaphila, Paniar in Chujarta, Marpan in Marnafe, Potrang Lake and Tindingtang. The group said those grounds had been used for grazing, hunting, forest produce and the Tsari pilgrimage. The Indian Army later called some media reports of fresh PLA camps incorrect and without basis. The two readings of the same ridgeline are the problem the new talks are meant to contain.

China claims Arunachal Pradesh and uses the name Nanzang in official communication. Taksing village sits about seven kilometres from the border. The eastern sector runs some 1,400 kilometres along Sikkim and Arunachal. A Corps Commander channel does not settle the claim. It creates a scheduled place where a misunderstanding of the kind reported near Taksing can be raised before patrols collide. Whether that is enough will be judged by the next incident log, not by Tuesday’s briefing.