Updated: September 27, 2020 8:00:29 am
An IAF plane in Leh amid the protracted confrontation between India and China. (PTI / File)
Away from the table of India-China talks, where efforts are being made to reduce tensions along the Royal Line of Control (LAC) in Ladakh, the Indian Army has been preparing for the winter deployment of troops in the region due to the hope of an early resolution of the crisis is rapidly retreating.
India and China have around 50,000 troops each in the region, backed by tanks, artillery and air defense assets. Army sources said each will calibrate its winter deployment according to what the other side does.
Given Ladakh’s harsh winter, the two sides, the sources said, may have to come down from some of the heights they currently occupy, and there could be a slight reduction in the number of troops.
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A senior government official told The Sunday Express that “we will have to wait and see” how many troops will be needed as the PLA “may decide to stay in important places” even during the winter.
The official, however, noted that the distance between the Chinese base and its positions on the heights of the north bank of Pangong Tso is much greater than what the Indian troops have to cover, and this makes the PLA positions unsustainable. .
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The two sides, another government official said, are prepared for deployment during the winter months, and the Chinese have even arranged fiber optic cables for better communication.
Only a few hundred meters separate Indian and Chinese troops at various locations on the northern and southern shores of Pangong Tso. For a week after India occupied key points on the south bank and the Chushul subsector, the Chinese tried to dislodge Indian troops but failed.
Indian troops have also readjusted positions on the north bank. During the fight for the heights, there was an incident, it happened before Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Moscow on September 10, in which troops from the two sides fired 100 to 200 rounds into the air.
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Following the Moscow talks, the Indian and Chinese military commanders returned to the table on September 21 to try to resolve the situation.
The Chinese insisted that India first vacate the occupied heights in the Chushul subsector, while India argued that disengagement and de-escalation should be carried out throughout eastern Ladakh.
“There are no meeting points, there are no points in common between the two,” said a senior Army official, adding that one of the main problems between the two parties is the “lack of trust,” especially after the incident in the valley of Galwan in which 20 members of the Indian army died in clashes with Chinese troops on June 15.
After the September 21 talks, the two sides, in a joint press release, agreed to “strengthen communication on the ground, avoid misunderstandings and wrong judgments, stop sending more troops to the front, refrain from unilaterally changing the situation in the terrain and avoid taking actions that may complicate the situation ”.
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