India will await Chinese response at the seventh meeting of military commanders on October 12 in Ladakh after formally rejecting Beijing’s 1959 unilaterally defined claim on its perception of the Royal Line of Control (LAC) in diplomatic-level talks on 30. of September. relayed by the Deputy Secretary (East Asia) to his Chinese counterpart in the 19th round of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (CMMC) on border issues between India and China.
While the Chinese side had unearthed LAC’s maximalist claim from 1959 on the eve of the WMCC meeting, the Indian side made it clear that it had rejected the cartographic claim immediately after then-Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-Lai did so to the then prime minister. Jawaharlal Nehru through a letter dated November 7, 1959.
The Indian diplomat firmly pointed out that China already occupied more than 33,000 km of land in the Aksai Chin area and another 5,180 square km of the Shaksgam Valley were illegally surrendered by Pakistan in 1963. The Chinese side did not have a convincing response to India. . rejection.
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At the meeting of military commanders next week, India hopes that the Chinese will present their position on the perception of LAC that is critical to resolving the current clash at six sticking points along the 1,597 km border line in Ladakh.
The Indian side will be represented by the outgoing commander of the XIV Corps, Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who resigned on October 14, the incoming commander, Lieutenant General PGK Menon, and the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Naveen Srivastava. The Chinese side will be represented by the South Xinjiang military commander.
There is no indication that the Commander of the Western Theater of the People’s Liberation Army, General Zhao Zongqi, is also resigning. You have already crossed the retirement age of 65 this April. Gen Zhao’s tenure has witnessed the PLA’s aggression in Doklam in 2017 and in Ladakh this year.
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According to the main military commanders, there is no change in the ground situation in Ladakh with both armies facing each other at the disputed points and there is no withdrawal from the deep positions.
However, the PLA’s psychological warfare is in full swing with articles about armored personnel carriers and artillery guns being parachuted near the LAC. “This raises a question as to why the PLA built roads to their last positions in the perceived LAC if they have yet to parachute military equipment,” said a former chief of the Indian army.
Chinese observers believe the ongoing psychic operations are part of a plan to pressure the Indian military to withdraw from the Chinese perception of the LAC on the southern shore of Pangong Tso. While the Indian Army is keeping its positions calm, it is also on the lookout for any advancement by the PLA in LAC before the snows overtake it later this month.
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