Next India-China army commanders’ meet to focus on Pangong Tso, Depsang 'Y' Junction

India will ask China to expeditiously and completely withdraw troops from the face-off scenes on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso lake and the Depsang Y Junction in eastern Ladakh when the senior military commanders of the two sides will meet within the next few days.

Lt Gen Harinder Singh, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 14 corps of the Indian Army, will soon hold a meeting with his counterpart Maj Gen Liu Lin of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at Chushul-Moldo point on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between the two nations – soon.

This will be the fifth meeting between the senior military commanders of India and China after the Chinese PLA’s unilateral move to alter the status quo along the LAC and the Indian Army’s response resulted in a military stand-off between the two neighbouring nations in early May. They earlier held four meetings on June 6, June 22, June 30 and July 14 to resolve the stand-off.

New Delhi wants the next meeting between Lt Gen Singh and Maj Gen Liu to focus primarily on withdrawal of the Chinese PLA troops from the areas like Pangong Tso (lake) and the Depsang Y Junction, sources aware of India-China engagement to defuse tension along the LAC told the DH.

The Chinese PLA has not yet shown sign of withdrawing from the northern bank of the Pangong Tso lake, where it deployed its soldiers and built structures at the “Finger 4” area, thus denying access to the Indian Army to an eight-kilometre-long stretch up to its earlier patrolling limit – the “Finger 8”.

The PLA not only built several bunkers and observation posts on the bank of the Pangong Tso over the past few weeks but also occupied ridges overlooking the “fingers” or the mountain spurs jutting towards the lake – thus effectively taking under its control an area of nearly 30 sq km.

Sources told the DH in New Delhi that the Indian Army would continue to insist on restoring the status quo ante that prevailed on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso lake before the May 5 skirmish.

Lt Gen Singh is also expected to ask Maj Gen Liu Lin to withdraw troops from the Depsang Y Junction, where the Chinese PLA had effectively taken over a vast swathe of land – in an apparent bid to alter the status quo along the LAC in the area and to move its position and deploy its soldiers closer not only to the key Doulat Beg Oldie military base of India but also to a new strategic road linking the base with Leh via Darbuk and Shyok villages.

The June 30 meeting between Lt. Gen. Singh and Maj. Gen. Liu resulted in the beginning of “disengagement” of troops.

But even as more than three weeks passed since both sides started withdrawing troops from the face-off scenes, the Chinese PLA has not yet pulled back troops from several areas along the disputed boundary in eastern Ladakh.

The latest military stand-off took New Delhi’s relations with Beijing to a new low, particularly after the violent clash between the Indian and Chinese soldiers in Galwan Valley on June 15. The Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in the clash. The Chinese PLA too suffered casualties, but it did not make public the number of its soldiers, who were injured or killed in the violent face-off.

New Delhi has been dismissing Beijing’s new claim of sovereignty over Galwan Valley ever since the latest stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA started in eastern Ladakh. The process of “disengagement” in Galwan Valley started early this month. After the Chinese PLA pulled back its troops from the scene of the June 15 clash, the Indian Army too withdrew troops 1.5 kilometers away from the spot, in keeping with the disengagement understanding reached between the senior military officials of the two nations. The “disengagement” process has also been completed in the scenes of the face-offs at Hot Springs and at Gogra and Kongka La areas.