India says PLA must pull back troops to China’s side of LAC

Process of disengagement of troops along India-China disputed boundary in eastern Ladakh remains stalled

China must withdraw its soldiers from India’s side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to complete the process of disengagement the two sides had agreed upon in order to end the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh, New Delhi said on Thursday.

The process of disengagement or mutual withdrawal of troops from the face-off points along the LAC – the de facto boundary between India and China – remained stalled, although a week has passed since the senior diplomats of the two nations had a video conference and agreed to expeditiously resolve the “outstanding issues” to end the stalemate and resolve the stand-off.

Beijing on Thursday claimed that both the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had made progress in withdrawing front-line troops along the LAC. “Since the Galwan Valley clash, China and India have held several rounds of talks through military and diplomatic channels, and progress has been made in disengaging the frontline troops of both sides, the spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defence of the Chinese Government, Senior Colonel Wu Qian, said in Beijing.

A source in New Delhi, however, dismissed the claim made by the Sr Col Wu in Beijing, stating that the process of disengagement had remained stalled since the second week of July, as the Chinese PLA declined to withdraw troops completely from several areas on India’s side of the LAC, including Depsang Y junction, Gogra Post and the northern bank of the Pangong Tso (lake).

Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the MEA, said that “complete disengagement” would require “re-deployment of troops” by both sides “towards the respective regular post on their respective sides of the LAC”. “It is natural that this can be done only through mutually agreed reciprocal actions,” he told journalists, adding: “Thus it is important to bear in mind that achieving this requires agreed actions by both sides.”

He quoted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar stating in an interview to a web portal that any solution to the current stand-off along India-China disputed boundary in eastern Ladakh “must be predicated on honouring all agreements and understandings and not attempting to alter the status quo unilaterally”. He also referred to the External Affairs Minister’s comment that India and China had resolved all such stand-offs in the past through diplomatic engagements.

Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Bipin Rawat, recently stated that India had military options to deal with transgression by the Chinese PLA in Ladakh, but it would be exercised only when talks between the military officials and the diplomats of the two nations would fail.

The senior diplomats of India and China so far had four rounds of talks to resolve the stand-off, with the last one on August 20. The senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA too had five rounds of talks till August 2. Jaishankar had talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on June 17 – just two days after the Indian Army lost 20 of its soldiers in a violent clash with the PLA in Galwan Valley.

Wang and India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval – the Special Representatives of India and China for boundary negotiations – talked over the phone on July 5.

Meanwhile, the Global Times newspaper, which is run by the Communist Party of China, reported that over 80 per cent people of the communist country would favour use of force against India in case of “another border conflict”.