(TibetanReview.net, Aug23’20) – While maintaining a pretence of being interested to resolve the Ladakh border standoff by holding a series of talks both at the diplomatic level and different military levels, China has continued to dig in its heels by keeping on building roads, bridges, helipads and other military infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) to back its troops at the actual face-off sites in Ladakh, reported the timesofindia.com Aug 23. The purpose is seen to be to shift the LAC further into Indian territory.
“China is indulging in ping-pong tactics by shuttling the ball between diplomatic and military talks, without any serious attempt at conflict resolution. There is no change in the ground situation,” a senior Indian military official was quoted as saying.
India has counter-deployed to match the build-up of troops, artillery, tanks and other heavy weaponry by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in all the three sectors of the 3,488-km long LAC stretching from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, the report added.
“China seems hell-bent on its strategy to push the LAC westwards in Ladakh. It’s carrying out military infrastructure development at an exponential pace since its troops intruded into Indian territory at multiple points in the high-altitude region in early-May,” another Indian military officer was quoted as saying.
The report cited the officers as saying China was building roads in several sectors close to the LAC and augmenting the capacity of its airbases at Hotan and Kashgar in Xinjiang as well as Gargunsa, Lhasa-Gonggar and Shigatse in Tibet, while also laying optical fibre cables for its troops at the faceoff sites in Pangong Tso and Gogra-Hot Springs areas.
The report noted that several rounds of diplomatic and military talks had so far failed to break the deadlock in the stalled troop disengagement in Pangong Tso and Gogra as well as de-escalation in the rival military build-ups in the strategically-located Depsang Plains-Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) sector.
