Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 6

The beginning of the phased withdrawal of Chinese troops from eastern Ladakh, theatre of a tense standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries, has put an end to the anxieties of people of the twin Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), at least for the time being.

J&K and Ladakh had been apprehending a big trouble on the borders when they watched troops moving up the mountainous roads to meet the challenge of checking the aggressive build-up by the Chinese side and the moves to alter the recognised status of the LAC. They were more worried as Pakistan, too, was seeking to aggravate the trouble on the Line of Control (LoC) with the ill-intention to open a two-front situation with the help of Chinese troops.

Monday morning, however, was abuzz with news that the troop withdrawal had started. This was confirmed by the Ministry of External Affairs that gave details of the telephonic conversation of NSA Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and disclosed that the two sides “agreed to complete the ongoing disengagement process along the LAC expeditiously”.

The reverse movement of the troops from their face-off positions to their sides is seen as a breakthrough achieved by the talks. This has added to their hopes, and all along the Kashmiri leadership had been pleading that the talks alone could deliver a way out of the crisis situation.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and the PDP leaders had been advocating talks with China to defuse the situation on borders. He had told the Tribune that a “give-and-take approach should be adopted in dealing with China”.

Similar sentiments were echoed by other groups.

Two natural consequences of today’s forward movement in the maintenance of the bilateral relations between India and China are: one, it has lifted the fear of immediate mishap on the borders. These fears had gone up several notches after the June 15 violent clashes in Galwan Valley.

This conciliatory process between Delhi and Beijing has also reduced the potential of Pakistan to create a bigger trouble on the LoC as the psychological advantage that it had been looking for since the days of the standoff in eastern Ladakh is gone for the moment.