June 15, 2023
Three years after Galwan clashes, China-India border standoff continues
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Thursday, June 15 marks three years of the Galwan Valley incident when Chinese and Indian troops clashed deep inside eastern Ladakh, leaving 20 Indian Army personnel and 4 Chinese dead.
The Galwan Valley clashes were the first deadly skirmish between the two militaries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in five decades and they significantly strained the bilateral ties.
On the night of June 14-15, 2020, the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) engaged in deadly hand-to-hand combat in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh in the western sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de facto border between India and China. Soldiers attacked each other with iron rods and clubs, resulting in the death of 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops.
18 rounds of high-level talks
The Chinese and Indian military officers held 18 rounds of high-level talks so far with an objective of taking forward the disengagement process in the friction points and restoring peace and tranquility along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
The 18th round of high-level military talks between the two sides were held on April 23 during which they agreed to work out a mutually acceptable solution to the remaining issues in eastern Ladakh at the earliest. The two sides completed disengagement in several areas following extensive diplomatic and military talks. India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless border issue is resolved.
On June 8, External Affairs Minister S Jai Shankar said that any expectation of normalization of India's ties with China when the border situation in eastern Ladakh is not normal is unfounded. "The fact is the relationship is impacted. And the relationship will continue to be impacted. If there is any expectation that somehow we will normalise (ties) while the border situation is not normal, that's not a well-founded expectation," he said.
Situation remains tense
According to Sudha Ramachandran of the Diplomat: The situation in Ladakh remains unstable. Despite the two sides disengaging their troops from some “friction points” along the LAC here, mutual suspicions continue to run deep. Not only are the two armies not reducing their troop presence at the LAC – each side maintains some 60,000 troops in Ladakh, even during the bone-chilling winter months – but also, they are building up their deployment of heavy weaponry and equipment. Additionally, they are improving over land and air connectivity infrastructure not just in Ladakh but along the entire LAC.
India is calling for the restoration of the status quo of April 2020 at Ladakh, a demand that China has refused to concede.
The disengagement from “friction points” that has taken place so far has not resulted in Chinese troops moving out of areas occupied since April 2020. Rather, the two sides set up buffer zones in the areas of disengagement. India has lost more territory than China to the buffer zones.
Indian analysts have been drawing attention to India’s rather pusillanimous response to China’s alleged land grab along the LAC. “India’s inability to move beyond rhetoric and diplomacy” in dealing with China could embolden the latter “to initiate a fresh land grab along the LAC,” Jabin T. Jacob, associate professor and director of the Centre for Himalayan Studies at the New Delhi-based Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, wrote in Deccan Herald.
Three years after the brutal assault on Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley, the possibility of another face-off cannot be ruled out, Sudha Ramachandran concludes.
India Has Lost Access to 26 of 65 Patrolling Points in Ladakh
Tellingly, a police officer from Leh in Ladakh has disclosed that India has lost access to 26 of 65 patrolling points from the Karakoram Pass to Chumar along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
In her research paper submitted at the 57th annual conference of India’s top police officials in New Delhi on January 20-22, Leh’s Senior Superintendent of Police P.D. Nithya said that “due to restrictive or no patrolling” by Indian forces at several patrolling points, India had lost access to patrolling points 5-17, 24-32, 37, 51, 52 and 62.
The absence of Indian troops at these patrolling points opened up space for Chinese soldiers to move in, the paper notes, forcing India to accept that these areas now have a Chinese presence. This has led to a shift in the LAC “towards the Indian side.”
It means that India has ceded territory under its control to the Chinese.
China occupies 1,000 sq. km of Indian territory in Ladakh
About 1,000 square kilometers of area in India’s Ladakh region along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is now under Chinese control, intelligence inputs provided to the Union Government here suggest.
On August 31, 2020, The Hindu quoted a senior government official as saying that, from Depsang Plains ti Chushul, there has been a systematic mobilization by the Chinese troops along the undefined LAC.
The official revealed that in Depsang Plains, from patrolling point 10-13, the scale of Chinese control of India’s perception of the LAC stood at about 900 sq.km.
About 20 sq. km in Galwan Valley and 12 sq. km in Hot Springs area is said to be under Chinese occupation, the official said. In Pangong Tso, the area under Chinese control is 65 sq. km, whereas in Chushul it is 20 sq. km, the official said.
The territorial gains that the PLA made on the ground through its salami slicing strategy were taken forward by its military commanders at negotiations with their Indian counterparts, the Diplomat said adding: The talks led to disengagement of troops from some friction points it has come at a heavy cost as India had to agree to buffer zones. These buffer zones were created as per the new changed situation on the ground rather than the pre-April 2020 ground situation. Consequently, the no-patrolling areas have come up largely on territory on the Indian side.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Chief Editor of the Journal of America (www.journalofamerica.net) email: asghazali2011 (@) gmail.com
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
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