Indian troops began patrolling the Demchok sector in eastern Ladakh on Friday following the disengagement with China, and patrolling in another friction point, the Depsang sector, is likely to begin soon, according to news agency ANI, citing Indian Army sources.
An Indian Army official reported on Wednesday that troops from both India and China had completed disengagement at the two friction locations of Demchok and the Depsang Plains in eastern Ladakh, with patrols scheduled to resume soon.
The next day, on Diwali, Indian and Chinese forces exchanged sweets at various border crossings along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), including places in eastern Ladakh.
On Thursday, defense minister Rajnath Singh acknowledged that the “process of disengagement” of Indian and Chinese personnel near the Line of Control in Ladakh was “almost complete.”
The Line of Actual Control divides Chinese and Indian-held territory from Ladakh in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. In 1962, India and China waged a devastating border war.Ties between the two countries deteriorated in July 2020 after a military clash killed 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese troops. That turned into a long-running standoff in the rugged mountainous area, as each side stationed tens of thousands of military personnel backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets in close confrontation positions.
In October, the two neighbors announced a border accord aimed at ending the standoff, followed by a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the recent BRICS summit in Russia, their first bilateral meeting in five years.
“Our efforts will be to take the matter beyond disengagement; but for that, we will have to wait a little longer,” Rajnath Singh said.
Chinese defence ministry spokesperson Zhang Xiaogang said Thursday the frontline troops were “making progress in implementing the resolutions in a orderly manner”.
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Source: HT
