India asks China to speed up withdrawal of additional troops from rear areas along LAC

New Delhi: India on Monday nudged China to expeditiously withdraw nearly 1,00,000 additional troops it had deployed in the rear areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between the two neighbours – during the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh from April-May 2020 to October 2024.

New Delhi also asked Beijing to restart sharing hydrological data about the Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo or Yarlung Tsangpo in China) and the Sutlej (Lungqen Zangbo in China) with India. China stressed enhancing mutual trust in its relations with India and protecting the bilateral ties from interference by any third country.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had a meeting with his counterpart, Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, in Beijing on Monday. “We have made good progress in the past nine months for the normalisation of our bilateral relations. It is a result of the resolution of friction along the border and our ability to maintain peace and tranquillity there,” Jaishankar told Wang.

“This is the fundamental basis for mutual strategic trust and for the smooth development of bilateral relations. It is now incumbent on us to address other aspects related to the border, including de-escalation.”

The stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh had started in April-May 2020 with the aggressive deployment of a large number of troops by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army along the disputed boundary between the two nations, and the Indian Army responding with counter-deployment.

The stand-off, which reached a flashpoint with a violent face-off in Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020, continued till October 21, 2024, when the two sides could finally clinch a deal for disengagement or withdrawal of frontline troops from Depsang and Demchok.

A meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping on October 23, 2024, at Kazan in Russia endorsed the deal as the end of the stand-off.

Jaishankar, while informing Parliament on December 3, 2024, about the latest India-China deal, had stated that disengagement or withdrawal of additional troops from along the LAC would be the next priority for both sides.

The two sides, however, could not make much progress on the disengagement, despite the resumption of the negotiations between Special Representatives to resolve the protracted boundary dispute.

Despite the mutual withdrawal of frontline troops from the face-off points, China did not pull back its soldiers from the “rear areas” forcing India to maintain the same level of deployment.

The 1993 and 1996 agreements between India and China required both sides to refrain from amassing large numbers of troops in the border areas, to abide by and respect the LAC strictly and to avoid taking any unilateral action to alter it.

“As neighbouring nations and major economies in the world today, there are various facets and dimensions of our ties. Measures towards normalising our people-to-people exchanges can certainly foster mutually beneficial cooperation,” Jaishankar told Wang, adding: “It is also essential in this context that restrictive trade measures and roadblocks are avoided.”

He stressed handling relations on the basis of “mutual respect, mutual interest and mutual sensitivity”. “We have also earlier agreed that differences should not become disputes, nor should competition ever become conflict. On this foundation, we can now continue to develop our ties along a positive trajectory”.

Wang told Jaishankar that the two sides should stand on high ground, seek long-term strategies, adhere to the direction of good-neighbourliness and friendship, and find a way for the two countries to get along with each other with mutual respect and trust, peaceful coexistence, common development, and win-win cooperation.

Jaishankar will attend the meeting of the foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at Tianjin in northern China on Tuesday. Wang will host the conclave.