India has objections over PLA blocking patrols
Ajay Banerjee
New Delhi, August 21
Military officers of India and China today met for the third time within four days to resolve the border standoff, especially at the sensitive Depsang plains.
Major General-level officials met at two locations —Chushul and Daulat Beg Oldie — in eastern Ladakh on Monday. This was the third meeting since Friday.
The push to resolve the deadlock also comes just ahead of the expected bilateral between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit from August 22 to 24 in South Africa.
Major General-level officers have been tasked with finding a workable solution that could be implemented along the undemarcated Line of Actual Control (LAC).
There are differences over the pulling back of troops from the Depsang plains and Charding Nullah near Demchok. The two sides have been locked in a standoff since April 2020. Talks have been deadlocked over the dispute over the 972-sqkm plateau Depsang. The two sides have issues over troop positions, especially at the “bottleneck” on the eastern edge of Depsang. India has been objecting to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deliberately blocking Indian patrols on the patrolling route that goes east of the “bottleneck” in Depsang. Prior to April 2020, Indian patrols were using the patrolling route, but since then the PLA has been craftily using a clause in the 30-year-old border agreement to block Indian patrols.
As per the border agreement, patrolling parties of one country have to return on encountering the patrol party of the other country.
One of the options being discussed now is that Indian troops would coordinate with the Chinese when patrols go east of the “bottleneck”. This would mean the creation of a new buffer zone and not carrying out patrols independently.
The claims of both sides overlap, especially in the Depsang plains. Some of these locations hold strategic value as they overlook the Aksai Chin plateau which is under illegal control of China.
India has already suggested to China that a graded three-step process is needed to ease the standoff. The first is disengagement of troops within close proximity in grey zones along the LAC and getting back to positions as on April 2020.
The next two steps — de-escalation and de-induction — will entail pulling back troops and equipment to the pre-April 2020 levels. Till that is agreed upon and complied with, it cannot be assumed to be business as usual.