Explained: China is not silent just like that, understand the meaning of the patrolling arrangement on LAC before 2020

New Delhi: India and China have agreed to restore the system of patrolling along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh before the Galwan Valley clashes in 2020. This agreement will be applicable to Depsang and Demchok areas. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently said that about 75 percent of the misunderstandings with China have been resolved and increasing militarization on the border is an important issue. he/she had said, ‘Now talks are going on on those issues. We have made some progress…we still have some things to do.

Foreign Ministry told the whole thing

After the announcement by the Ministry of External Affairs, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar said that both the countries have ‘returned to the situation they were in in 2020’. he/she said, ‘We can say that the process of resolving the dispute with China has been completed… There are some areas where after 2020, when they stopped us for different reasons, we also stopped them. Now we have reached an agreement, which will allow patrolling to resume. However, nothing has been said regarding the withdrawal of thousands of additional troops deployed by both the countries on the border in Ladakh, nor has there been any statement from Beijing on this matter.

strategically important area

Demchok is located in Ladakh near the state border with Himachal Pradesh, close to the southernmost part of the LAC. A village in this area was the center of Chinese infiltration during the 1962 war, but People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops did not advance. This was the first place where China prevented Indian authorities from building civil infrastructure, including roads.

India took back Depsang from China’s occupation

Depsang is a flat area near Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) in the north-western part of the disputed Aksai Chin area in the Union Territory of Ladakh. This disputed area was under the control of China, but India started entering this area and now a road has also been built here. Due to the flat terrain, movement of soldiers and vehicles including tanks becomes easy.

The Galwan Valley, where the Shyok and Galwan rivers meet, was the site of clashes in 1962 and is an important strategic area. India’s Darbuk-Shyok-DBO (DSDBO) road, which leads to DBO (a military base with an airstrip), passes through the valley. For China, the Galwan area is an important point to monitor on the way to the DBO.

Tension after 2020 clashes

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday that Indian and Chinese negotiators have finalized the agreement after weeks of talks aimed at resolving issues that arose after the Chinese military action in eastern Ladakh in 2020. Indian and Chinese troops first clashed on May 5, 2020, on the northern bank of Pangong Tso Lake. On the night of 15 June, a major clash took place between an Indian patrol and PLA troops in the Galwan Valley in which soldiers from both sides suffered casualties.

Amid claims and counterclaims of occupation of Indian territory in May and June 2020, satellite images revealed that China was building bunkers and tunnels and setting up tents on the banks of Pangong Tso Lake. he/she even reportedly built a jetty on the lake for boats. Following the 2020 clashes, China aggressively increased its presence along the LAC in Ladakh, including bringing in troops and armored vehicles.

India-China border dispute is very old

The LAC came into existence after the India-China war of 1962 but is not properly demarcated. Because of this, it has been the center of a long-running dispute between the two neighbours, covering areas from Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Ladakh in the north.

The LAC divides areas of geographical control, not territorial claims. According to India, the actual border is 3,488 km long, but China says it is much shorter. Beijing claims about 90 thousand square km of India’s territory in the northeast including Arunachal Pradesh, while New Delhi says that 38 thousand square km of land in China-occupied Aksai Chin should be part of Ladakh.

Both India and China had increased the number of troops due to the 2020 clashes, but they have since withdrawn troops from the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso Lake, Gogra and some areas of Galwan Valley.

(With inputs from Times of India report)