Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: A month after External Affairs Minister S, Jaishankar hinted that 75 percent of disengagement problems have been sorted out, and ahead of the upcoming BRICS Summit at Kazan, Russia (October 22-24), India and China have achieved a ‘breakthrough’ in their ongoing standoff, envisaging an LAC patrolling pact “leading to disengagement.”
The agreement pertains to patrolling in Depsang and Demchok areas around India and China’s bilateral Line of Actual Control (LAC), the media reported on Monday.
The two neighbors arrived on a patrolling arrangement along the LAC in the Himalayas, and it can lead to disengagement and resolution of tension that began with skirmishes in May 2020, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
The breakthrough came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia to attend the BRICS Summit, beginning on Tuesday.
Misri said diplomatic and military negotiators of the two countries had held several rounds of talks over the past few weeks. These talks resulted in an agreement on “patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border areas leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had risen in these areas in 2020,” he said.
Although no official announcement has yet been made, PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit of the informal group of states comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS).
The last meeting of the working mechanism for consultation and coordination on India-China border affairs was held on August 29 in Beijing. The two sides then had a frank, constructive, and forward-looking exchange of views on the situation along the LAC to narrow down differences and find an early resolution of outstanding issues.
It was agreed that the restoration of peace and tranquillity, and respect for the LAC are the essential basis for a restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations.
Earlier this month, Indian Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi had said the two sides have resolved the “low-hanging fruits” and now need to address difficult situations, adding there was “positive signaling” from the diplomatic side and execution on the ground depended on military commanders of the two countries.
Indian and Chinese military commanders too had been meeting regularly seeking complete disengagement in the remaining areas along the LAC in eastern Ladakh as an essential basis for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas.
Some areas remained to be de-escalated after Indian and Chinese troops withdrew from Gogra-Hot Springs in Ladakh in September 2022. The Chinese forces in this area had returned to pre-2020 positions. Even then, Chinese soldiers were still believed to hold large swathes of Indian territory to the north in the Depsang plains.
Fierce clashes between soldiers of both sides took place in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan in June 2020, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in action. Over 40 Chinese soldiers were killed or injured.