The latest disengagement along the LAC is a welcome move, but the border crisis is not over
The latest disengagement along the LAC is a welcome move, but the border crisis is not over
India and China confirmed on 13 September disengagement of his troops from the fifth friction point Along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh. with Latest withdrawal of troops from Patrolling Point (PP) 15 In the Gogra-Hot Springs area, buffer zones have now been established by both sides at five locations, including Galwan Valley, north and south of Pangong Lake and PP17A in Gogra. Arrangements in the four already established buffer zones have helped in maintaining peace in the last two years so far. There is to be no patrolling by either side in the buffer zones, which have been established over the area claimed by both India and China. The latest disruption came just three days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping attended Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Uzbekistan.
Reflecting the current state of relations, the two leaders have not spoken directly in more than two and a half years, an extraordinary situation for the world’s two most populous countries. Whether they meet at the SCO summit – until September 14, with neither side having confirmed or denied the meeting – or at the G20 in Indonesia later this year, India will need to proceed with caution as it will inevitably resumes high-level engagement with China. , While buffer zones may serve as a temporary measure to prevent a recurrence of conflict, the reality is that this is a system that has been forced upon India. By holding the line and showing its ability to match China’s deployment, the Indian Army has been able to reverse China’s multiple territorial entry into five sectors in April 2020. However, this has come at the cost of India’s ability to reach patrol points it was reaching earlier, which, in the view of some military observers, could be China’s game-plan, given the favorable logistics and terrain. Is. Chinese side that enables rapid deployment. Furthermore, China has neither agreed to resolve the standoff at Demchok and Depsang, suggesting that they pre-dated the current tensions, nor showed any intention to de-escalate, instead Further infrastructure has been continued to be built for the purpose of permanently housing a large number of soldiers. to LAC. Indeed, there are indications that both sides are in for a long period of uncertainty at the borders due to China’s decision to mobilize thousands of troops in April 2020, in violation of previous border agreements. Unless Beijing takes its recent, and still unexplained, move to militarize the LAC and in the process undo the carefully crafted arrangements that have helped keep the peace for 40 years, India will have a rift in relations. There will be little incentive to consider withdrawals as they were before 2020. The latest disruption, while certainly a welcome move, is by no means the end of the crisis at the border.