(TibetanReview.net, Sep17’24) – “The Chinese remain non-committal on disengagement from the occupied zones in the Depsang Plains. Negotiations are still going on to press for disengagement from the strategic zone,” the telegraphindia.com Sep 17 quoted a security official with India’s home ministry as saying. Other reports have said the Chinse reluctance to withdraw also extends to the Demchok Sector, also in eastern Ladakh.
The stalemate at the Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh persists as the Chinese army continues to resist Delhi’s demand for disengagement from the strategic zone. The zone is operationally critical for Delhi as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is entrenched 18km inside India-claimed lines along the frontier, sources in India’s security establishment have said Sep 16.
As if to indicate no further withdrawals, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said last week that troops from the two sides had disengaged at four places in eastern Ladakh, including the Galwan Valley, and that the border situation was generally stable and under control.
Mao’s comments came a day after India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar said roughly 75% of the “disengagement problems” with China had been sorted out while the bigger issue remained the increasing militarization of the frontier.
Mao also said India and China had agreed during their meeting in Russia to work together to create conditions for improving bilateral relations.
She was referring to the Sep 12 meeting between India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a meeting of the BRICS high-ranking officials responsible for security in St Petersburg, Russia, where they discussed the progress made in the recent consultations on border issues.
The Chinese army is said to have taken over close to 1,000sqkm of India-claimed territory along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh since May 2020, the report said.
There has been “partial” Chinese disengagement from the Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Hot Springs and Gogra, but at the price of Indian troops retreating inside Indian territory by an equal distance to create demilitarized “buffer zones”, the report said.
The report said the Depsang Plains remain the only transgression point where no disengagement has taken place since the Chinese transgressed across India-claimed lines in Ladakh in May 2020.
However, other Indian media reports have said deadlock over Depsang plains and Demchok sector remains unsolved.
Following multiple rounds of diplomatic and military talks, disengagement occurred at around four friction points, but the strategic areas of Depsang Plains and Demchok remain unresolved, said thewire.in Sep 13.
To complicate matters, China has asserted that the Depsang Plains and Demchok are legacy issues, while India maintains that they are part of the ongoing stand-off dispute, the report said.
Whatever may be the case, earlier intelligence reports have suggested that the Chinese were building additional roads, helipads and military camps in the occupied areas, deepening the fears that Beijing wanted to declare a new status quo on the LAC.