NEW DELHI: The India-China agreement on troop “patrolling arrangements” along the LAC, which will lead to disengagement at the remaining major faceoffs at Depsang and Demchok in Ladakh, will begin to take concrete shape on the ground in seven to 10 days.
This, however, represents just the first step towards restoring normalcy along LAC.
“China should also agree on the subsequent long-drawn process of de-escalation and de-induction of forward deployed troops, which is imperative for the restoration of status quo that existed before April 2020,” a defence and security establishment source told TOI.
The new patrolling pact, in effect, means Chinese troops will stop actively blocking Indian soldiers at the ‘Bottleneck’ area in the strategically-located Depsang Plains, which is around 18km inside what India considers its own territory, and vice versa, the source said. “There will be relocation of the temporary positions/posts that both sides had set up. Similar disengagement will be carried out at Charding Ninglung Nallah track junction near Demchok in the south,” he added.
There was no clarity on whether the planned pullback from the military standoff by a few kilometers will allow Indian troops “full access” to their traditional patrolling points (PPs) 10, 11, 11A, 12, and 13 in Depsang, which is towards the crucial Daulat Beg Oldie and Karakoram Pass in the north.
With both sides having overlapping claims in the region, sources said “patrolling will be done in all areas”, with the frequency being twice a month. “The two sides will coordinate patrols and limit it to 15 soldiers each to avoid confrontations,” said a source.
China, incidentally, claims as much as 972 square km of territory in the Depsang region, which is near its critical Western Highway G-219 connecting Tibet to Xinjiang.
The two armies had earlier created no-patrol buffer zones, varying from 3km to 10km largely on the Indian side of LAC, after troop disengagements at Galwan, north bank of Pangong Tso, Kailash Range and the larger Gogra-Hot Springs area, with the last taking place in Sept 2022. The buffer zones, which were supposed to be temporary arrangements, and the confrontation at Depsang and Demchok meant Indian troops could not access 26 of their 65 PPs in eastern Ladakh, which begin from the Karakoram Pass in the north and go down to Chumar in the south.
There was also no response to queries on whether China agreed to the new patrolling pact in eastern Ladakh in lieu of India granting some concessions in Arunachal Pradesh. Defence ministry, on being contacted by TOI, refused to comment.
After People’s Liberation Army‘s multiple incursions into eastern Ladakh in 2020, China had forward-deployed over 50,000 troops and heavy weapon systems along LAC there. Beijing subsequently upped the ante in the eastern sector (Sikkim, Arunachal) of LAC by deploying another 90,000 soldiers there. “China continues to maintain its forward deployed troops along LAC,” another source said.