India says PLA has not completed withdrawal of troops; China digs in heels in Pangong Tso

China not keen on clarifying alignment of its LAC with India as it can create new dispute, says Beijing’s envoy to New Delhi

China has dug in heels on the new areas its soldiers occupied on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso, while New Delhi has alleged that the communist country has not yet completed the withdrawal of front-line troops from all the face-off scenes along its disputed boundary with India.

The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have made “some progress” in implementing the agreement reached earlier for “early and complete” disengagement or withdrawal of the front-line soldiers from the face-off points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), but the process "has as yet not been completed”, Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi.

New Delhi has been particularly worried after Indian Army reported that the Chinese PLA had not yet withdrawn troops from several face-off points, including the northern bank of the Pangong Tso (lake). India is also worried as China has not yet shown any sign of thinning out the large number of troops it deployed over the past few weeks in the “depth areas” on its side of the LAC – the de facto border between the two nations.

Sun Weidong, Beijing’s envoy to New Delhi, on Thursday said that China’s claim-line on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso was in sync with the alignment of its LAC with India. He said that China had not expanded its territorial claim along the disputed boundary with India.

“On the northern bank of Pangong Lake, China's traditional customary boundary line is in accordance with the LAC. There is no such (thing) as China expanding its territorial claim,” Sun said, while responding to a question during a webinar hosted by Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi.

The spurs of the mountain range on the northern bank of the Pangong Tso jut towards the lake like a palm with the protrusions looking like fingers. They are in fact demarcated on the maps as ‘Fingers’, with the “Finger 1” at western end and the “Finger 8”. China claims that the LAC, after cutting through the Pangong Tso, goes through the “Finger 4”. India, on the other hand, claims that the line goes through the “Finger 8”.

The soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA had a scuffle on Finger 4 on May 5. The PLA later built bunkers and observation posts and deployed additional troops in the 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 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. kms.

The MEA spokesperson on Thursday said that the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA would hold the fifth round of talks “in the near future” to “work out steps” to speed up the process of withdrawal of the front-line troops from the remaining face-off scenes.

Srivastava said that maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas was the “basis” of India-China bilateral relationship. “Therefore,” he added, “we expect that the Chinese side will sincerely work with us for complete disengagement and de-escalation and full restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas at the earliest as agreed to by the Special Representatives”.

India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi – the Special Representatives of the two governments for boundary negotiations and strategic consultations – held talks over phone on July 5 and agreed that “early and complete disengagement” of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas in accordance with bilateral agreement and protocols and full restoration of peace and tranquillity was essential for smooth overall development of bilateral relations.

China on Tuesday claimed that its PLA and the Indian Army had pulled back troops from “most” of the face-off scenes along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh.

With no settled border between the two nations, the LAC in the western sector and the McMahon Line in the eastern sector serve as the de facto boundary between the two nations.

The two sides, however, have mutually conflicting perceptions about the alignment of both the lines, which often lead to soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA transgressing the LAC into each other’s territory.

In the November 1996 Agreement on the CBMs in the border areas, India and China recognized the differences in perception over the LAC and sought to speed up exchange of maps for clarification and confirmation of its alignment. Beijing, however, subsequently took it off the table in its engagements with New Delhi, ostensibly out of apprehensions that New Delhi might insist on turning the LAC, if clarified and confirmed, into de jure boundary.

“If one side unilaterally delimits the LAC as per its own understanding during negotiations, that could create new disputes, would be a departure from the original purpose of clarification of the LAC,” Beijing’s envoy to New Delhi said on Thursday. He was replying to a question why China was not keen on working with India for clarifying the LAC and narrowing down differences in perception of the two nations on the alignment of the line, pending the final settlement of the boundary dispute.

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.

“It was an unfortunate incident. Neither side wants to see it happen,” Sun said on Thursday, but reiterated Beijing’s position on the June 15 clash, holding the Indian Army responsible for the incident.

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.