SRINAGAR, India (AP) – China and India are withdrawing front-line troops from the controversial parts of their mountainous border where they have been facing each other for months, the two countries said.
Troops began disengagement Wednesday on the southern and northern shores of Lake Pangong in the Ladakh region, they said.
India and China will eliminate deployments in a “progressive, coordinated and verified manner,” India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on Thursday.
China’s defense ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the two sides had begun a “synchronized and organized” disengagement.
You have the confrontation in the mountains of Karakoram began in early May, when Indian and Chinese soldiers ignored each other’s repeated verbal warnings, triggering a shouting match, throwing stones and punching on the north shore of Pangong Lake, where the disputed ridges s ‘they enter the glacial lake from eight directions and are referred to as’ fingers’.
In June, it rose and spread north to Depsang and the Galwan Valley, where India has built an all-weather military road along the disputed border. Tensions erupted in a melee with clubs, stones and fists that killed 20 Indian soldiers. It is believed that China also had casualties, but has not given any details.
Since then, both countries have stationed tens of thousands of soldiers backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets along the de facto border called the Current Line of Control, or LAC, with troops settling in during the harsh winter.
Each party accused the other of inciting violence. They started military and diplomatic talks about the end of the crisis, which has drastically changed the India-China relationship.
China in its brief statement did not provide details on the decoupling. Singh said the “Chinese side will maintain its troop presence in the north bank area east of Finger 8.”
India claims eight fingers on Pangong Lake, but its military presence extends to finger 3. The area between fingers 4 and 8 was traditionally patrolled by both sides before the situation warmed up in May, all and that China claimed the area.
According to India, Chinese soldiers occupied the area between fingers 4 and 8 last year. India responded in August by occupying at least three uninhabited peaks on the southern shore of the lake, during which both sides fired warning shots for the first time in 45 years, raising the specter of a military conflict in large scale and leading Beijing to furiously demand the withdrawal of Indian troops.
“Reciprocally, Indian troops will be based at their permanent base” near Finger 3, Singh said. “Both sides would take similar action in the South Bank area.”
Singh said the two sides also agreed on a “temporary moratorium on military activities” on the north shore of the lake. “The patrols will resume only when both parties reach an agreement in the diplomatic and military talks to be held later,” he said.
Lieutenant General DS Hooda, who was the head of the northern command of the Indian army from 2014 to 2016, to which the Ladakh region belongs, said the agreement “is a significant step towards full disengagement and the solution to the problems that exist between the two countries “. “.
He said it would take a while to rebuild trust and establish new agreements. “The ongoing crisis has led to great mistrust and a complete breakdown of the agreements and protocols that kept peace along the line of control,” he said.
But some Indian experts said the development meant the Indian government had accepted Beijing’s position on the disputed territory.
“Talking about the mutual withdrawal from Pangong’s positions is just a smokescreen!” Tweeted Ajai Shukla, a former Indian military officer and defense commentator.
“From the beginning, China’s real military target in East Ladakh has been Depsang. You don’t hear a word about it, “he said.
Depsang, one of the most strategically important areas in the region, is where India has the highest runway in the world and where, according to Shukla, the Chinese army has entered 15 to 18 kilometers (9 to 11 miles). ) within indigenous areas.
The LAC separates the territories of China and India from Ladakh in the west to the east of India, Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. LAC is broken into areas where the Himalayan nations of Nepal and Bhutan border on China. It divides areas of physical control rather than territorial claims.
India claims the China-controlled Aksai Chin Plateau as part of the Ladakh region. According to India, the control line is 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles) long, while China says it is considerably shorter.
Relations between the two countries have often been strained, in part because of their controversial border. In 1962 they fought a border war that erupted in Ladakh and ended in an awkward truce. Since then, troops have guarded the indefinite border and occasionally fought. They had agreed not to attack each other with firearms.
The current confrontation has to do with disputed parts of a pristine mountainous landscape that features a glacier that feeds one of the world’s largest irrigation systems and is a key link in China’s massive infrastructure project and the road.
India unilaterally declared Ladakh federal territory and separated it from the disputed Kashmir in August 2019, ending the semi-autonomous state of Kashmir administered by India. He also pledged to reclaim the Aksai Chin Plateau.
According to some Indian and Chinese strategic experts, India’s move exacerbated tensions with China., leading to the June border clash.
China was one of the first countries to strongly condemn the decision in international forums, including the UN Security Council.
___
Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report.