Military commanders of India, China discuss hot Springs, Kongka La

The military commanders of India and China restarted negotiation on Wednesday, with mutual withdrawal of front-line troops from the Hot Springs and Kongka La areas in eastern Ladakh being high on the agenda.

The commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army met on China’s side of its Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India at Chushul-Moldo point in eastern Ladakh for the 14th round of negotiations to resolve the 21-month-long stand-off. The meeting marked the resumption of the negotiation at the level of the military commanders after a hiatus of three months. The 13th round of negotiations on October 10 last year had ended in a stalemate.

The outcome of the 14th round of negotiations was not officially made public by the two sides till the latest report came in. But a deal on mutual withdrawal of the front-line troops from Hot Springs was being perceived as a “low-hanging fruit” for the negotiators to yield. A proposed deal on disengagement of troops from another face-off point – Kongka La – was also on the agenda, according to the sources in New Delhi.

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Lt Gen. Anindya Sengupta, who recently took over as the commander of the Indian Army’s XIV Corps, led the delegation of India. His predecessors Lt Gen. Harinder Singh and Lt Gen. P G K Menon had led the Indian Army’s delegations in the earlier rounds of negotiations with China.

Lt Gen. Sengupta’s counterpart in the South Xinjiang Military District of China, Maj Gen Liu Lin, led the delegation of the PLA. He has been leading the negotiation on behalf of the Chinese Army ever since the stand-off started in April-May 2020.

The Indian Army officials reiterated during the talks that the stand-off had been caused by unilateral attempts by the Chinese PLA to alter the status quo along the LAC in violation of the bilateral agreements. They also stressed that it was necessary for the Chinese PLA to take appropriate steps in the remaining face-off points in order to restore peace and tranquility along the entire stretch of the LAC in the western sector of the disputed boundary, sources in New Delhi said.

India has been emphasizing that end of the stand-off along the LAC would facilitate progress in its bilateral relations with China.

The military commanders of India and China had discussed disengagement in Gogra Post and Hot Springs when they had held the 12th round of talks on July 31 last year. But they had not been able to reach an agreement on disengagement in Hot Springs and had only agreed on disengagement from Gogra Post, where the two sides had later withdrawn troops from. The 13th round of talks on October 10 last year had ended without any result. Beijing had accused New Delhi of insisting on “unreasonable and unrealistic demands”. India too had accused China of failing to make any forward looking proposal.

The Indian Army and the Chinese PLA had earlier mutually withdrawn troops from both the banks of Pangong Tso (lake) in February 2021.

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