Face-off between India, China soldiers in Ladakh ends after delegation-level meeting
New Delhi: Pressure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) flared up on Wednesday following a face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh which, however, ended after delegation-level talks.
The Indian and Chinese troops were reportedly engaged in confrontation near the northern bank of the Pangong Lake in Ladakh, two-thirds of which is controlled by China.
“There was a face-off between the two armies but it got over after the delegation-level talks between the two sides. The face-off is over now and it had de-escalated and disengaged fully after delegation-level talks a day before Wednesday”, an Indian Army spokesman said.
Bilateral relations between India and China have been tense after New Delhi revoked the “special status” to Jammu and Kashmir under the Article 370 of the Constitution last month. Beijing had specifically objected to the conversion of the Ladakh into a Union Territory and also supported Pakistan’s diplomatic move to internationalize the issue by taking it to the UN.
The Indian Army has said similar incidents can take place along the LAC in view of its exercise scheduled for next month. The Army had on Wednesday announced its plan to hold an exercise in Arunachal Pradesh, starting this October, in which the Indian Air Force and the Army will jointly exercise real war scenario inside the Indian territory.
Interestingly, the fresh incident was like the more serious troop face-off at Doklam in the Bhutanese territory near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in 2017. The two armies had disengaged from the face-off site after a 73-day eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation. Subsequently, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) constructed military infrastructure and helipads as well as permanently stationed troops in north Doklam.
This comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October near Chennai. The LAC stability and trade ties are likely to be the focus of discussion in the meeting.
The Indian armed forces’ “Him Vijay” exercise in Arunachal Pradesh is being held to coincide Jinping’s visit to India for the second informal summit with Modi. The first Summit between them at Wuhan in April 2018, after the Doklam face-off, had led to “strategic guidance” to the two armies to manage and defuse troops’ confrontation during patrolling in accordance with existing protocols and mechanisms.
